V.> ' 



TWELVE LETTERS 



-TO A 



YOUNG MILLINER, 



TO WHICH IS ADDED 



Advice in Ordering from Samples, Sugges- 
tions FOR Making Out Orders ; also 
FOR Forwarding Feathers by 
Mail, Etc., Etc. 



REFRIKTED FROM HILL'S MILLINERS' 
GAZETTE FOR 1882. 






published by hill brothers, 

Importers, Jobbers and Wholesale Dealers in Millinery 

Goods, 

No. 625 BROADWAY, N. Y. 

1883. 



MOST DIRECT ROUTES 

— TO — 

Between Houston and Blt-eckcr Streers^ 



first. — Froj;i all Points on the Hudson River, between Chambers and 
Charlton Streets. 

Tak-e the "Avenue C Line" of Cars going North (to the left from 
river) through West, Charlton and Prince Streets, to the corner of Broad- 
way, whence walk (to the lefij to No. 035* 

This uicliides all Railroad Ferries at the foot of Chambers Street : 
most of the North River Steamboats ; many of the New Jersey Boats, as 
well as many, of the Boston Boats. 

Second. — From all Points on the Hudion River, between Chambers Street, 
and the Battery 

Take the "West Belt Line " Cars, or walk going North (to the left from 
river) to Chambers Street, whence take the "Avtnue C Lme'' Cars 
through West, Charllon and Prince Street-, to the corner of Broadway, 
whence walk to the left, to 6'-ii>. 

This includes the Radroad Ferries from New Jersey, landing at foot 
of Liberty Str3et ; Starin's New Haven Boats; others of the Boston and 
New Jersey Boats. 

Xllird. — From the "Christopher Street Ferry" of the Morris «&^ Essex' 
Railroad, the Steamers "Stiratcga'^ and "Cty of Troyf of the "Citizen^ 
Line" front Albany and Troy, foot of Christopher Street. 

'lake the "West Side lelt Line' Cars, (or walk s ven b'ocks Sout 
to the right from river), to Charlton Sfeet, where take the "Avenue 
Line" Cars ihr u^h Charlton and Prince Streets, to the corner of Broad- 
way, whence walk (to the left,) to No. Ot£5. 

Foiirtll. — From the Cmrecticut River Bjats : from the New Haven Boats 
from the NorivaV: Boats : from mafiy of the Long- Island Boats, and 
from anyxvhere in the neighborhood of Fulton Fen y. 

Take the "Bleecker Street and -Fulion Ferry Lin-" Cars fiom Fultor. 
Ferrj-, (two blocks frotn Peck Slip) threuLh Fu! on, William, Ann Streets, 
&c., to corner of Broadway and Bleecker Street, whence walk to No 
6S$; or take the Broadway and Fifth Avenue Line of Stages from Fultou 
Ftrry, which passes No. G!2j Broadway. 



TWELVE LETTERS 



-TO A- 



YOUNG MILLINER, 

TO WHICH IS ADDED 

Advice in Ordering from Samples, Sugges- 
tions FOR Making Out Orders ; also 

FOR FoRWARDINc; FeATHERS BY 

Mail, Etc., Etc. 



flEPRIJVTEB FROM HILL'S MILLIJVFa 
GAZETTE FOR 1882. /(^t 



PUBLISHED BY HILL BROTHERS, 

Importers, Jobbers and Wholesale Dealers in Millinery 

Goods, 

No. 625 BROADWAY, N. Y. 

1883. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by 

HILL BROTHERS, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C 



New York : 

PRESS OF HIGGINS & FREEMAN. 

No. 55 Cedar Street. 



-# PREFACE, h-^^^ ■ 

These Letters were written during the year 
1882, for successive numbers of Hill's Mil- 
liners' Gazette. The circulation of that 
paper increase I rapadily, each month, and. 
as a consequence, numerous requests for back 
numbers containing- the early Letters were 
received. It was impossible to comply with 
these requests, the successive editions of the 
paper being exhausted. The requests in- 
creased as the year went on. The publishers 
of the Gazettk determined to reprint the 
Letters and so informed many applicants. 
They did this for several reasons. That those 
who desired to see the complete Letters 
and had not been able to procure the early 
numbers of the paper, might do so ; that 
those who had seen them and wished 
them in a handier form micrht be accommo- 
dated ; that they might present to the scores 
of ladies, beginning business, who come to 



them each year for advice. Some more ex- 
tended suggestions than they could give them 
in a personal interview, and, lastly, that they 
might further exemplif}' the rule they adopted 
long ago, to spare no pains to grant an)' 
reasonable request preferred by their friends 
and customers. 

It is not claimed tor these Letters that 
they present anything new to persons of ex- 
perience. To such they were not originally 
written. It is hoped that the beginner may 
get from them some hints to assist and to 
encourage her in the attempt to establish her 
self in business ; something that may start z 
train of thought or suggest a plan that will 
end in success. If so, the authors purpose will 
be accomplished If any beginner who reads 
this little book shall fail of success, she will 
at least give the publishers the credit for 
a hearty desire to do what they could to 
assist her. 



TWELVE LETTERS 



-TO A- 



YOUNG MILLINER 



LETTER I. 

Introduction.— Location of Store.—Care Needed.— Consid- 
eratioufi that should deterntdne the choice.— Cheerfvl. 
Location preferred. 

Dear Madam : 

Your letter asking for advice and for instructions in be- 
ginning business was duly received. While I debated in my 
mind the best way to give you the information desired, a 
second letter asking for similar advice from a different section, 
which, in itS turn,' was followed by a third of like import, de- 
termined me to reply to all collectively rather than to each 
individually. My determination was strengthened by calling 
to mind several letters of similar tenor, received since the es- 
tablishment of the Gazette. 

I purpose, therefore, in a series of monthly letters to set 
forth with what plainness I can what seems to me requisite 
and necessary for the success of any one who may engage in 
this business ; and incidentally to the success of those wh(^ 
may engage in any business. "^ 

The retail Milliuerv business seems especially adapted to 



6 

ladies. The articles in which you deal are neither bulky nor 
heavy ; and so your strength is not taxed beyond endurance. 
It is pre-eminently a business c illing for an exercise of taste 
upon the part of those engaged in it ; and a degree of 
taste such as few men can claim. No one will contend that 
the grocer, the butcher or the blacksmith requires tlie delicate 
taste that enters into the construction of a becoming Hat ; 
nor is he ever called upon to exercise the taste needed for 
the satisfactory arrangement of ribbons of various shades 
and colors. 

I shall assume in these letters that you have sufficient cap- 
ital to render you independent of circumstances that other- 
wise might seriously affect your success ; that your resour- 
ces will allow you, for example, to choose your store rather 
than to be obliged to take whatever is offered ; that you 
may accept or reject your assistants as you may think them 
desirable or not ; that you may buy where j^ou choose, and 
in many other respects be at liberty to exercise your judg- 
ment. 

1. Location of store. — This is a matter to require serious 
consideration. Many a business, otherwise well planned and 
intelli??ently carried on, has failed because it was in the 
wrong place. The customers didn't come to it ; or, coming 
once, failed to return. In choosing your store, have refer- 
ence, first, to the popular side of the street. The extra rent 
demanded is generally well -spent money. A Millinery store 
must be on the side of the street frequented by promenaders. 
Many a person will enter and become a customer because 
the store is at hand, who would not cross the street. I 
mean those persons who go out for an afternoon walk or 
for some trifling articles, with no well-defined purpose of 
purchasing anything of amount. Coming opposite to a Mil- 
linery store they think they will make an inquiry, look at 



a Hat, and enter the store because it is in their way. In 
the second place, look to the character of the neighboring 
stores. No matter how elegant a store may be, if its next 
door neighbor is a butcher shop, a saloon, an ill-kept gro- 
cery, where idlers and loungers congregate to stare respec- 
table people out of countenance, every lady will hurry past 
it. Plate glass, fine show windows, and elegant fixtures will 
not secure the customers you desire, and if you rely upon 
customers promised to you when you begin business, you 
will find them unaccountably dropping away. The custom- 
ers themselves, when asked why they leave, may not always 
be able to tell. They are conscious of an atmosphere, both 
moral and physical, which is unpleasant to them, but are, 
perhaps, unable to put their impressions in words. 

If you occupy a second story, see that you secure one 
with a broad and easy stair-case ; one, too, in a building 
with few or no other businesses ; otherwise your customers 
will desert you and new ones will fail to take their places. 
Ease of access is essential to the success of any business. 
Competition is now so strong that customers g3 to the hand- 
iest place. It is the pennies of the multitude rather than 
the dollars of the few that contribute to the success of any 
retail business. "Many a mickle makes a muckle," as our 
Scotch friends truly say. It is true, also, that many cus- 
tomers make more. People like to go where the crowd goes, 
whether this be a church, theatre or Millinery store. Let 
it once be noised abroad that everyone gets her Hat at 
Madam Plush's, and there will be no lack of business in 
that establishment. 

If you. are forced to take the parlor of a dwelling house 
for your first start in business, select a cheerful one. There 
are scores of parlors occupied for the Millinery business, 
which present such a funereal aspect that the customer, com- 



ing from a sunny street, feels like ordering a mourning Hat 
rather than a Christmas one. Get on the sunny side of the 
house, let the sun in, and do all in your power to hrighten 
up things. And this leads me naturally to speak of fitting 
up the place of business. 



LETTER II. 

The Lease of the Store ; to be carefully draum. — Fitting 
up of Store; importance of it. — Pictures, Flowers, etc., 
not to he overlooked. — Cleanliness and Tidiness of 
Store important at all times. 

Dear Madam : 

I will suppose that you have given careful consideration 
to various points made in the former letter and have selected 
your place of business with due regard to them. If you 
hire the store, you will be wise to secure a written lease. 
Into this lease put all points that may become subjects of 
misunderstanding. It is so much easier to settle these before 
the dispute arises that no business woman will fail to have 
the terms in "black and white." The lease should specify 
the amount and time of payment ; what repairs are charge- 
able to the owner and what shall be paid for by the tenant ; 
conditions of renewal may be inserted and many othe'* 
matters trivial in themselves when duly inserted in the lease, 
but whose omission has led to long and costly lawsuits. 

The store selected and the lease dwly executed, you may 
now turn your attention to ( 

2. Fitting up the store. — A proportionate part of your 
capital expended in this will prove a good investment. Noth- 
ing is more repelling to a customer, unless it be the untidy 
appearance and gloomy face of the sales-woman, than a 
dingy, dismal room. The great secret, of which I shall have 



9 

more to say hereafter, in selling goods is to put the customer 
at her ease and to cause her to feel on good terms with her- 
self. This is hard to do when she comes from the bright 
sunlight into a sombre room. Your own cheerful face 
cannot drive away the depressing influence of such a room. 
Besides, goods in such a room never appear to advantage. 
Remember that Millinery goods are fair-weather goods and 
that a new Hat looks better in a clear, bright day than in a 
cloudy, dull one. Therefore, make your rooms bright and 
cheerful with paint and paper. Don't begrudge the cost nor 
consider the money expended as thrown away. You will 
need show-cases for your counters. You will need them 
both for the protection of your goods and for displaying 
them in the most attractive form. Flowers and ribbons 
kept in boxes, and put out and into them twenty times a day, 
soon lose their freshness. A spray of flowers loses a bud 
or a leaf, a roll of light ribbon shows a finger mark and a 
reduction must be made from the price before a sale is ef- 
fected. In a show-case all of the flowers may be displayed 
and the customers may select the ones she thinks will suit 
without handlirg the many she knows will not answer. 
Side or standing show-cases for Hats and large articles are 
equally advantageous and in the end will repay their cost 
many times in preserving the stock from flies, dust and too 
much handling. You have been in stores where you have 
been struck with the freshness of the goods ; they looked 
as if they had just come from their original packages, while 
in another store the goods presented an old-fashioned and 
shoddy appearance that repelled, instead of attracting you. 
Now, in many cases, this difference of appearance is owing 
entirely to the difference in the care which the goods have 
received. >In one instance they have been protected from 
the dust, the damp and from unnecessary handling ; in the 



10 

other, they have had an over- abundance of all three, and 
hence, it pays to protect your goods. 

Pictures, when they can be procured, add much to the 
attractiveness of a room. These need not be necessarily 
valuable ; but their presence serves to relieve blank walls 
and affords an agreeable resting-place for the eyes of cus- 
tomers. Comfortable chairs, for those who are obliged to 
wait, will not be found amiss ; and a table witli a few books 
and magazines will serve to wile away the tediousness of the 
waiting and arouse in your customers a sense of gratitude 
to one who so thoughtfully studies their comfort. If you 
can awaken in them an interest in your success you may 
be sure that your prosperity is secured. ( 

It is with considerable diffidence that I add that rooms 
should be kept scrupulously clean, and everything in them 
free from dust. I say w^ith diffidence because it is commonly 
supposed that all women have in tliem the housewife sense 
to such a degree as to need no advice upon such a sub- 
ject, but frequent visits to Millinery stores in various parts 
of the country have convinced me that some women expend 
all of their cleaning energies upon the home and have none 
left for the store. ,.This is a great mistake, for, if your cap- 
ital will not permit you to indulge in plate-glass and fine 
room you can make your sto-e attractive by the neatness 
with which it is kept, and the good taste shown in the dis- 
play of the goods ; and, if in the country, you can brighten 
and sweeten your rooms with flowers, both cut and grow- 
ing, and the care required by the growing plants will be 
repaid you a thousand fold; besides those very plants may 
form a bond of sympathy between you and your customers, 
for what lady does not love flowers, that will do much to 
secure the success you so richly deserve. 

In my next, I propose to speak to you about selecting 



11 

stock, and meanwhile I ask you to consider in what other 
way you can add to the attractiveness of your place of 
business. 



LETTER III. 

Selecting Goods : Quantity and Quality. — Where to Buy. — 
Why at the Center of Fashion ; Of WJbom to Buy ; 
Why of an Established House ; Knowledge Gained- 
There. — Resources of such a House. 
Dear Madam: 

Neither the best located store, nor the most elegantly 
appointed one, will alone avail to achieve a business success. 
These ara but favorable incidents. The essential thing is 
a well-selected stock of goods. With whatever of courage 
you may have reached thus far in your business preparations 
you will naturally feel a sinking at the heart when you come 
face to face with a responsibility that can be no longer put 
off. It is so easy, at this stage, to make a shipwreck of 
your venture, that it will not occasion surprise to more ex- 
perienced persons that you do, but, on the contrary, that 
you don't. You may not apportion your capital aright. 
You may lock up so much of it in high-priced, slovv^ sell- 
ing goods that your stock of articles for daily sale may be 
limited and the assortment incomplete. Or you may err 
in the other direction. You may not have any kind of an 
assortment to present to such of your customers as desire 
fine goods on which the^ profit is considerable. For instance, 
there are persons to whom one shape of Hat is more becom- 
ing than another, and unless you have a variety of shapes 
from which they may select, your would-be customer is 
forced to go around to the next street to be suited ; and 
she will probably continue to go there. 
In selecting a stock, the first thing to be determined is 



10 

from what kind of people you will probably draw the most 
of your custom. If you are the only Milliner in a vi!- , 
lage, the selection of a stock is a comparatively easy matter. 
It must include a little of everything as to style, quality 1. 
and price. But if, as is probable, you propose to be one \. 
more, of quite a number in a large village or town, the se- 
lection is not easy. From the location and style of your 
store ; from your social position, from your wide or narrow 
range of acquaintances, you can easily form an opinion 
whether a majority of your customers will' be those to whom 
money is a secondary consideration, and getting suited the 
primary one, or M^hether both are of equal consequence. 
If in a manufacturing village M^here many operatives are 
employed, your goods must look well but the quality will 
not be closely inspected, provided the price is low. In other 
words, the price and quality of the largest part of your 
stock must be determined by the social position of your prob- 
able customers. 

) Having determined the general quality of your stock, the 
next thing that confronts you will be the quantity. This 
will depend primarily upon the amount you can invest, but, 
at the same time, a variety will be needful whether you 
invest little or much. The time has passed when it was 
thought to be quite the thing for every lady's new Hat to 
be of the same shape, color and trimming, whether suita- 
ble to the lady's complexion, style or carriage. Indeed, in 
a crowded street, it is very seldom , one meets with two Hats 
j ast alike. While certain shapes may have what is called a 
"run," the mode of trimming and the manner of wearing 
are so numerous, that practically each lady takes the Hat 
that is most becoming, or that she think is. Now, to meet 
this fact, it is needful that your stock, whether it be of large 
or small value, should be of great variety. This variety is 



also needed to meet that Y>t^t"uliarity in the feminine mind 
that forbids any lady to selett a Hat in five minutes. The 
pleasure of seeing how she will look in the different styles, 
must not be denied to your customer. Though she is pos- 
itively sure that she will look like a "fright" in a certain 
style she must have the pleasure of try in -^ it on if for no 
other reason than to say '* I told you so." Besides, a Mil- 
liner who has these different varieties gets a reputation for 
enterprise and a desire to please that will stand her in good 
stead in days to come. Whatever I have said about variety 
in Hats applies equally to ribbons, flowers, feathers and 
ornaments. The ingenuity displayed in designing the in- 
finite varieties in these is wonderful ; and your customers 
will look for variety here or they will go into the next 
street to find it. 

With this general idea of the quality and quantity of 
your stock the next question that will confront you will 
be this, "Where shall I buy?" If it were a stock of soap 
or of sugar, of boots or of bedsteads, the place they came 
from would be of little consequence. If the soap took out 
the dirt, the sugar sweetened the tea, the boots kept out 
the water, and the bedsteads did not fall to pieces, it would 
matter but little to the customer whether they came orig- 
inally from New York or from New Orleans, from Boston 
or from Buffalo ; but when it comes to articles of wearing 
apparel into whose manufacture taste and fashion enter, 
the customer does wish to know whether they are bought 
in the woods or in the center of civilization. In articles of 
Millinery, in which fashion is so large an element, it is of 
the highest importance that they come from the center of 
fashion. Present to your customers two Hats, both of the 
same style and quality ; mark the one, New York ; the 
other, Smithville, which will be sold first ? There is but one 



14 

{insWer to the queHtion. E\en the woman tliat buys ;t Hat 
but once in five years, if one tliere be, will choose the Hat 
marked New York. Now, you buy your goods to sell ; there- 
fore, buy goods that will sell. You have neither the time 
nor the money, nor is it your dut}^ to teach a beuiglited 
generation that Smithville goods are sui)erior or equal to 
New York goods. A Milliner's life is too short for any such 
Quixotic enterprise. This prejudice in favor of New York 
Millinery may be without foundation, may be unfair, but it 
exists ; and a beginilfer in the trade, if she desires success, 
must yield to that which is useless to resist. If it becomes 
noised abroad, in the beginning of your business career, 
that your goods are out of date, that they are old style, in 
a word unfashionable, you may as well dispose of your stock 
at auction and go into the book-peddling business at once, 
as to hope to succeed in the Millinery business. Let your 
neighbors see that your boxes and bundles have the New 
York mark upon them and your reputation for being in 
the height of fashion will be established. That such a rep- 
utation is needed for success, you will not deny. 

Having settled, then, that you will buy your goods from 
New York, the most important of all remains to be an- 
swered, viz. : "Of whom shall I buy them?" I am aware 
that this is a delicate question and that there are persons 
ready to say when they have read so far that this is an un- 
fair question. I am not advising them, but you who have 
asked me, and I think you will find the advice to be sound . 

Whatever you may do in the future, it is of the utmost 
importance that you buy your first stock of an old, estab- 
tablished house, that is widely and favorably known. Among 
the many reasons for such a course are these. The age of 
the house is a proof that it has the confidence of the trade ; 
that successful Milliners buy their goods from them, that 



15 

they would not do so, if the goods were not A j.; m every 
respect. Again, the resources of this establishment are such 
that every article, of every kind and quality can be pro- 
cured from them ; and you need not exhaust your strength^ 
for you will need it all, in shopping about among a dozen 
houses to procure articles that can all be found under the 
the same roof. Again, the hints that you will pick up from 
the inspection of an immense stock will be worth a large 
amount to you in conducting your business. A.gain, hav- 
ing had in their long experience hundreds of young Millin- 
ers come to them for advice in starting business, they are 
ready to give much valuable information to the beginner 
in regard to quality, quantity and variety of stock ; and 
this is very important. Again, goods bought from such a 
house will sell better than those, bought from some small 
unknown and unheard of establishment. If your customers 
know that your goods come from, a house known to be at 
the head of the trade, they are confident that they will 
prove as you represent them ; for, they naturally reason, 
that such a house did not gain its reputation by selling 
shoddy articles and will not lose it by selling chicken feathers 
for ostrich. 

Again, the knowledge that you buy your goods from a 
large, widely-known house of established reputation will go 
far towards giving you a sound financial standing, estab- 
lish your credit in business circles and this is of the utmost 
importance to a beginner. Finally, the knowledge that you 
buy your goods of such a house will be taken, as a proof 
among your friends and neighbors that you mean to model 
the conduct of your business after theirs, that you mean 
to sell good goods, keep up with the times and have every 
article prove as good as represented. 

There are other reasons why you should buy goods from 



16 

such a house ])ut this letter has already exceeded the space 
assigned it and T must close. In ray next, I will, with your 
permission, give you a few hints about marking goods, and, 
if space permits, some advice about selecting your assistants. 



LETTER IV. 
Marking Goods; Want of System. — Basis of Marking: 
Exar^iples. — Where Goods are Manufactured; How to 
Mark. — Exceptions to General Rules. — Care Needed lu 
Determining the Price of Flowei-s and Feathers. — How 
to Open Goods. — Plainness of Figures. — Price Tags 
on Goods. 
Dear Madam : 

Very few mark goods on any system. They can assign 
no reason for their asking price beyond an impression that 
the article ought to bring it, it is what others ask. Per- 
haps, in their trip to the city, they have seen similar articles 
sold for that price. Too often, when purchasing, they ask 
at what price such articles r.i'tail. Tiie salesman, anxious 
to impress upon his customer tiie remarkably low price at 
which he is offering the goods names some ridiculous figure. 
The price is affixed. The articles don't sell, and their owner 
discovers, when the seas'/a is nearly over and the goods 
unsalable at any price, that the . figure has been too high. 
Perhaps you i)ropose to copy the prices of the store in which 
you were employed and find that, however well such prices 
may have been there, in your hands they are too high. 
None of these modes of affixing prices is based upon busi- 
ness principles, and in the end must prove your business 
ruin. Let us see if wc cannot find some basis for marking 
that has its foundation upon some principle, and conse- 
quently will give you a system of marking that shall be 
fair and just, both to the seller and to the buyer. 



IT 

This is the principle : Goods sold shall pay for themselves 
and yield a living profit. No one will dispute this. Hence 
there is no need of argument. The cost of the goods is not 
the amount of the wholesale dealer's bill. There are ma^iy 
other items that enter into their cost and must be con- 
sidered before the profit can be added, and because no notice 
is taken of these items, the beginner often finds herself, at 
the end of the year, with the goods all sold and paid for, 
but with not enough money to meet the wholesale dealer's 
bill. How does it happen ? We will see : 

Suppose your goods cost in New "iork $2,000. The freight 
is $20 ; rent, $200 ; assistant's wages, $250 ; insurance, $10 ; 
one year's interest, $120 ; bad debts, $100 ; incidentals, $50 ; 
making the total cost of the goods before they are sold, 
$2,750, or an addition to their original cost of 37+ percent. 
Now do you think that you can afford to do business at a 
profit of 12i per cent. ? If so, add it to the cost and you 
will have this : Original cost, 100 per cent. ; expenses, 37^ 
per cent.; profit, 12i per cent.; total, 150 per cent. So 
what has cost you $1, must be sold for $1.50 ; what cost 
50 cents, for 75 cents ; what cost 25 cents, for 37^ cents, 
etc. And you cannot afford to sell for one cent less. 

This is the simplest and most direct form of determining 
the asking price. But there are many circumstances pecul- 
iar to each one's business that may suggest some modifica- 
tions in the above. For example, you propose to make up 
goods, and you determine that the manafacturing part of 
the business must pay the assistant's wages. In that case, 
this item must be deducted from the cost of the goods 
that are sold in the same condition as they are bought. 
Indeed, it will be well to open an account with your man- 
ufacturing department. Cnarge it with goods taken from 
the sales department, with the wages of the necessary help, 



1H 

Vvith half of the running expenses of the store and then 
add the protit that you think you ought to liav»^ in order 
to determine the asking price for your manufactured articles. 
I think a careful reading of the above will enable you to 
device a method of getting at your asking price tliat will 
be founded on a sound principle and give you a fair return 
for the money invested. But there are no rules to which 
there are no exceptions and the Millinery business will 
furnish as many exceptions to the regular rules for mark- 
ing as any other. In the above remarks it i? assumed that 
all goods are equally salable, and so will return their share 
of the profit. But, in fact, this is not so. There are staple 
goods of which you will sell about the same amount each 
day of the week, and for each week in the year. These 
goods mus-t carry the smallest profit, and consequently be 
marked the closest. For three hundred articles sold at a 
prefit of a cent will yield as much return as one sold at a 
profit of three dollars. There are other articles that sell 
six 'months in the year and then are unsalable until 
the same months next year. As these articles only work, 
so to speak, six months in the year, they must be made to 
pay as much in that time as those articles that work 
twelve. If you are content with an average profit of 12^ 
per cent, the articles selling every month in the year can 
be sold at 6^ per cent, while the other articles must be 
marked so to gain, on their cost, 25 per cent. There are 
other articles like Hats that are salable at one season and 
then, because of change of style, are never salable again. 
It would be the height of business folly to only mark 
these at 12i per cent, profit. You must use your judgment 
of the price to be put upon them. Always bear in mind 
that there will be some left over that must be sold, if at 
all, far below even the original cost. 



10 

If you are where competition is so great that you must 
sell your goods pretty close, it will not be wise for you to 
keep a very large stock of such goods. It is better for you 
to order frequently from a reliable house than to be found 
at the end of the season with a lot of unfashionable goods. 
So much in general for marking goods. I trust that I have 
made myself understood and shall leave the details to your 
judgment. There are, however, one or two cases to detail 
to which I desire to call to your attention. You buy Flowers 
in bunches of from two to six sprays at so much a bunch. 
You retail them by the spray. A bunch of two sprays costs 
a dollar and one of three or four, costs the same. Now it 
is the practice with some to mark but one spray in each 
bunch. The marked ones may be the first to be sold. Your 
assistant having now no guide but the cost price of the 
bunch, may sell them all at the same price, thus entailing 
a loss upon the two spray ones or else asking too much for 
the four spray ones. The only safe way is to mark each 
spray. It will take a little more time in the beginning 
but save you a deal of loss and of annoyance in the 
end. These same remarks apply to Ostrich Tips. Again, 
you may buy a hundred Hats of the same style at 
the same price, but the colors and material may vary. 
When you are about to mark them, your judgment will 
tell you that some of them will sell with difficulty, the 
color is not pretty, the braid is not as tasteful, Mark these 
but a little above the cost, while the pretty ones should 
take all the profit that your market will allow. In mark- 
ing Ribbons which you buy by the piece and sell by the 
yard, there is a great chance to sell below cost unless you 
are careful. Don't allow more than ten yards to the piece 
in determining the price per yard. Above all, do not mark 
your goods in a hurry. Open your packages when alone, that 



is, out of business hours. Compare every package with the 
invoice. See that it agrees in number and quality. Check 
it off from the invoice when found correct. Search the 
packing carefully for a stray piece of Ribbon or a bunch 
of Flowers. In many cases the apparent shortages will be 
found. When the invoice is chocked, proceed to open the 
packages and mark the goods. If you employ assistants 
see that the marks are plain and unmistakable. Nothing 
disgusts a customer so much as to find when she has con- 
cluded to take an article that the assistant has made a 
mistake in the price. Therefore make your figures and 
other marks plainly. What seems a fair 5 to-day, a week 
hence may seem equally as fair a 3. 

Many successful Milliners put large tags on their goods, 
so that, at a distance, the price may be easily known. 
This is practiced especially with goods in windows and show 
cases. It is claimed that it saves much handling. Cus- 
tomers frequently ask to see goods, and when they learn 
the price, do not desire to buy. In many cases they would 
not desire to handle them if they knew the price. It is 
claimed, also, that customers who enter a store or pass a 
window and see a pretty Hat, with the price affixed, are 
frequently led to buy it, because they did not think that it 
could be sold so low, and, therefore, would not have asked 
the price. 4 You will weigh carefully these claims and be 
governed by them in the conclusion to which you will arrive . 
Don't be discouraged if you make mistakes in your first 
attempts at marking goods. Older heads than yours have 
done it, and after many years of experience are often at 
a loss to know what price te affix. To strike the happy- 
mean between a price that is so high that the sales are 
slow or so low that it is not remunerative is a delicate 
problem. 



21 
LETTER V. 
A,sststa7its ; Care Needed in Selecting ; Requisites of a 
Good Trimmer. — Nimble Fingers: Quick Eyes; Good 
Taste.— Hoio to Test Them ; Good Saleswoman : Char- 
acteristics of; Patience; Neatness of Dress; Knowledge 
of Goods ; Good English. 

Dear Madam : 

The English have a proverb that he who would be rich 
must first ask his wife : and in my opinion the Milliner 
that would be successful must first ask her assistants. In 
a business of any extent, no one person can attend to 
everything. Something must be entrusted to others ; and 
upon tlie skill and fidelity with which this trust is dis- 
charged depends, in a large measure, larger than you may 
think, the success or failure of your enterprise. She, 
therefore, who thinks that anyone who will work for the 
wages offered will do for an assistant will soon find the 
loss side of her accounts increasing faster than the gain 
side. 

Your assistants will serve you in a two-fold capacity, 
either as saleswomen or as trimmers, or what is more prob- 
able, in both capacities. 

The trimmer should have nimble fingers. There are some 
whose formation of ^he hand and fingers ib such as to shut 
out all possibility of their ever becoming deft and skillful 
in the use of a needle. They handle it as if it was a 
meat-skewer or a hair-pin ; something to be stuck into the 
goods and pulled through by main force. Their thread 
constantly kinks or breaks, the seams are never smooth and 
there is a general botchiness about their work that no 
amount of oversight will ever remedy. The goods you 



handle are of such a frail and delicate nature that light- 
ness of touch is a necessity, in a skillful trimmer, in order 
to preserve their freshness. 

Again, quickness of eye to distinguish the many tints 
and shades of color that enter into all branches of your 
work is a prime necessity in a good trimmer. To this 
must be added a knowledge of complementary colors that 
she may know what ones will harmonize. Tlie strife of 
manufacturers for pre-eminence adds yearly new colors to 
those heretofore in use, while the new tints and shades of 
the old ones increase with wonderful rapidity. A good 
trimmer should possess the color faculty in a high degree. 
You cannot pin every bit of Ribbon and every spray of 
Flowers upon a Hat in their proper places and only require 
your trimmer to fasten them. A machine could do as 
much. You can furnish her the Hat, the materials, and 
giving the general directions, have a right to expect that 
the colors will match and th'j whole effect be harmonious. 
How often have you heard it said that the Hats from 
Madame Tasty's are si becoming to their wearers, that 
there is a style, a dressiness about them that other Hats 
do not possess. Yet every one can buy the sam > style of 
Hat from the wholesale dealer ; similar Flowers and Rib- 
bons can also be bought ; but when put together by some 
persons will resemble Madame Tasty's Hats about as much 
as a child's painted flowers resemble the lovely creations 
of nature. WhaC is the reason ? The* trimmers at Madame 
Tasty's are selected for their nimbleness of fingers and their 
knowledge of colors. She will not trust her reputation in 
the hands of unskilled or ignorant persons. As a conse- 
quence, she is over-run with orders, while the Milliner 
across the street, who thinks that anyone who can sew and 
knows white from black is fitted for a trimmer, looks on 



:?> 



with dismay at the people who pass her door only to enter 
that of Madame Tasty. 

You have, doubtless, among your acquaintance, some man 
whose knowledge of music is confined to Old Hundred and 
to Auld Lang Syne. He sings on ail occasions. If the 
words seem to have a religious meaning he fits them, re- 
gardless of measure, to Old' Hundred. If. on the other 
hand, he discovers a worldly tendency in the verses, he 
thinks the quavers and turns of Auld Lang Syne better 
adapted to express the melodious longings of his soul. 
Now, this man may be an upright citizen, a good husband, 
a kind father and a consistent Christian, yet no one selects 
him to teach a singing-school or to lead the village choir. 
It is his misfortune that the musical talent was not in- 
cluded among his other virtues, but regard for the feelings 
of others determines that his misfortune must not be the 
means of vitiating the tastes of the rising generation. 
Now there are many excellent women applying to you for 
employment whose fitness for your business is about equal 
to that of our non-musical friend for a music teacher. 
However much your heart may incline you to take them 
into your employ, your head will not do you good service 
unless it causes you to hesitate. Give every applicant pieces 
ef lace to put together ; some colors to arrange that you 
may see a sample of her work and then engage her on 
trial. Have it distinctly understood that you will tell her 
at the end of a week if you can make room for her. 

If you succeed in getting your goods made up tastefully, 
your business success is not secured until you have sold 
them. In another letter, I propose to tell you how to sell 
goods but here L only intend to s:t forth what seems to 
me requisite for a good saleswoman. Since we may not be 
able to attaiu true happiness in this world, the more we 



24 

strive for it the nearer we come to it ; and if model sales- 
women are as rare as true happiness it follows that the 
more we strive to secure them the nearer we shall come to 
the desired model. 

1. — The good saleswoman intiM he of pleasing appear- 
ance, and neatly attired. 

I do not say that she should be handsome, nor even 
pretty ; for I bear in mind that in this world of com- 
pensations, a pretty face is often accompanied by an 
empty head, and vanity takes the place of judgment. 
We must take the world as we find it, and it is a fact 
that the average customer is favorably disposed towards a 
saleswoman more from the first impression received tlian 
from a subsequent knowledge of her goodness. Pleasing 
appearance includes pleasing manners. She should not be 
awkward in her movements, loud in her voice, forward in 
giving her opinion before it is asked. Patience must be 
her crowning virtue. Patient with the airs and ignorance, 
even, of the customer ; patient with repetitions of the same 
request ; patient when asked to show the same goods over 
and over ; patient wlien her liarassed employer lets fall a 
sharper word than usual. Neatly attired. Not expensively ; 
not in a frayed satin or in a silk decorated w^ith frequent 
grease spots ; not with a profusion of jewelry or with a 
super-abundance of bows or streamers. All these things 
are distasteful to customers deserving the name of ladies, 
and give a bad impression of the taste of the store where 
such things are allowed. They manage such matters better 
in France. The neatness, simplicity and appropriateness of 
attire displayed by French women who serve in stores is a 
never-ending subject of admiration to travelers who trans- 
act business with them. 



2. — .4 good saleswoman ivill learn everything she can 
about the goods sJte sells. 

She will know the names of the braids used in Hats, 
where and how they are made. She will inform herself 
about the reputation for taste acquired by different man- 
ufacturers and wholesale dealers. Her knowledge of 
artificial howers, the materials used, mode of manufacture, 
will be as extensive as her reading can make it. It is said 
that the female . nature has a large share of curiosity 
in its make-up. * Some customers desire to know all 
these things. If thej hnd your assistant able to give 
them this information in a pleasant and an agreeable 
m.anner they feel sure that you understand the business 
and that what you say is so and not guessed at. 

Again, this knowledge of the goods enables the assistant 
to set forth their advantages in a stronger manner than 
she would otherwise be able to do. This inspires confidence 
in the buyer, and the occasional buyer soon becomcj a 
regular customer through the influence of your intelligent 
assistant. 

It is hardly necessary to add that your saleswoman 
should strive to use the English language correctly ; should 
avoid all expressions calculated to grate harshly upon the 
nerves of your customers ; they should not use the language 
nor give the information desired in a manner calculated to 
impress the customer with their superiority. Modesty ir: :. 
virtue equally becoming to a saleswoman as to a woman, 
and if airs before the counter are disagreeable they are 
doubly so behind the counter. 



26 

LETTER VI. 

The Successful Saleswoman, Continued : Must he a Good 
Judge of Human Natiire : Some Directions how to 
Become Such ; Must he an Agreeahle Person ; Why 
Men make Better Sellers than Womtm : Some Faults of 
Address to be Avoided. — Do not Hiurij Customers. 
Dear Madam : ' 

You know the proverb says that a poet is born, not 
made ; and there are business men who insist that a sales- 
man :s equally indebted to nature for his success. This is 
undoubtedly true to this extent : that the qualities that go 
to make up a good salesman must be born in him. A 
blind man will not make a successful painter ; a deaf man 
will not rise to eminence as a musician, because the sense 
of sight is denied the one and the sense of hearing is 
lacking in the other ; and upon the acuteness of these re- 
spective senses depends the success of the occupations 
named. What the sense of sight is to the painter, the 
sense of hearing to the musician, so is the possession of 
these natural qualities to the successful salesman. It does 
not follow that all salesmen are alike, any more than it 
does that all successful musicians are alike ; but unless a 
man or woman possess the natural qualities of which I 
speak he or she can never sell goods with that degree of 
success that will warrant them in continuing the occupation. 
They may excel in shoemaking and dressmaking, black- 
smithing or kitchen-work, but in selling goods, never. 

3. — A successful salesivoma7i must be a good judge of 
hu7na7i nature. 

There is nothing so uncertain as human nature ; nothing 
more diverse. There are said to be thousands of shades of 
worsted, and there are women who can recognize them all. 
Such women are successful in this department ; but one 



27 

who could only distinguish a dozen shades would soon have 
the worsted shelves in the admirable state of confusion 
that charactei'ized the rag carpet of your grandmother, 
when woven upon the "hit and miss ' plan. So a sales- 
woman who cannot recognize the diversities in human 
nature accurately and promptly will not rise to a high 
degree of success. Some customers are short of speech and 
of few words. (There are cynical old bachelors who say 
that such ones never visit a milliners' shop.) Now, to over- 
whelm such people with a flood of words is to disgust 
them. Others are voluble and talkative to a degree of 
weariness. To answer these in monosyllables, and to reply 
to their lengthy periods with yes or no, is to send them te 
the store over the way where they will find a more appre- 
ciative listener. 

Many of you who will get any benefit from these letters 
reside in small towns where you know your customers 
either intimately or by reputation. You have, therefore, 
excellent opportunities for finding out what interests your 
customers. Each one probably has a hobby which she rides 
with more or less vehemence. Find out what it is and 
when she visits you give her a chance to show the paces 
of her favorite steed. With one, it will be books. If you 
know books, talk to her of them. With another it will be 
flowers. In the pauses that will occur while she transacts 
business with you, slip in a few well-directed questions upon 
this subject. With another it is music. If you know 
music, talk it. I say if you know these things, for there 
is nothing that disgusts an intelligent person more than 
ignorance and pretense. If you don't know them, don't 
talk tliem. Find some common ground upon which you 
are safe and use this to tlie best advantage. 

There is only one hobby tlie exhibition of whose paces 1 



'^S 



advise you not to encourage. 1 mean the disposition to 
tattle that some of your customers may^show and may 
think that you, from your pubhc position, may be able to 
supply food for the particular hobby they delight to ride. 
While you cannot always refuse to hear, always refuse to 
add a drop to the current of tattle that runs througl\ all 
small towns. Don't let your store get the name of a news 
shop. You will surely drive away j^our customers of intel- 
ligence ; and it is upon these that tlie reputation of your 
store depends. I have advised you to learn the likes and 
dislikes of your customers, that you may talk to them 
intelligently and render yourself agreeable. And thin brings 
me to my next point : 

4. — A successful saleswonKtii must he cm agreeable per- 
son. 

No one likes to do business with a disagreeable person. 
You don't ; I don't. Indeed, it is well for you to call to 
mind the persons with whom j'^ou have had the pleasantest 
business transactions, and set them opposite in your memoiy 
to those with whom your business relations have been un- 
pleasant, and trj'^ to distinguish what brought about these 
results in each case, and so shape your conduct to imitate 
the one and avoid the other. 

We don't trade with disagreeable persons if we can 1 elp 
it, and often we have bought more goods than we intended 
just because the salesman was agreeable. This is what you 
must be ; so, if you don't sell your customer more than 
she intended to buy, she will go away with a pleasant im- 
pression of you and take an early chance to come back 
and renew it. '^ 

It is said that ladies prefer to buy goods of gentlemen 
rather than of their own sex. A. T. Stewart is said to 
have recognized tliis as a fact, and employed men where 



29 

other houses employed women. It is said that women are 
not patient with their own sex and are prone to give short 
replies and to indulge in tossings of the heads and up-turn-' 
lugs of noses that convey disagreeable impressions more 
(juickly and surely than many a long speech could do. Of 
the thousands of women behind counters in the land, there 
is not one who cannot make herself agreeable to a gentleman. 
Just imagine that your customers are gentlemen and I 
think you will be equally successful with them as a gen- 
tleman would be. 

When your customer enters the store meet her with 
respectful politeness. If you are engaged in anything else 
don't lay it aside with a bang as much as if you would 
say, "Why couldn't you wait until to-morrow!" Don't 
begin with "What can I show you?" in a tone and man- 
ner that says, "Well, what do you want?" Nor is it wise 
to address her with. "What is it, madam?" as if you 
expected her to ask for cold victuals and were ready to 
show her the door. There is a gentleman in a large store 
where I often visit an acquaintance, who has this disagree- 
able manner in its greatest extent. He invariably ap- 
proaches me with "Whom do you want to see, sir?" his 
tone and manner indicating that I am an escaped convict 
with burglarious designs upon the stock. He reminds me 
of the dog that comes smelling about your heels when you 
open the gate of some country house. You feel as if you 
wanted to kick him ; but prudence says he may have 
teeth, so you refrain and make it up by hating him twice 
as much as any dog ought to be hated. Now, I prefer to 
live upon the recollections of a last year's breakfast than 
to buy a loaf of bread from such a man, at half-price. 
The gentleman to whom I refer is a church mem- 
ber, a kind husband and an exeraplary father; it is' 



BO 

simply his way, and a very disagreeable one it is, too. 
Don't hurry your customer. Hurry yourself as much as 
you please, but, unless very well acquainted, do not hurry 
her. Don't volunteer advice as to what she shall buy. If 
you have what she asks for, get it ; but, at the same time, 
if you have something equally good for less money, or a 
little better for the same money, mention it ; but get what 
she asks for, otherwise she will think you haven't it and 
.are trying to make her buy what she didn't ask for. just 
because you didn't have what she did ask for. Let a cus- 
tomer once get this idea into her head and you will sell 
her nothing- at that time and perhaps not in the future. 



LETTER VII. 

The Successful Salesicoman, Continued: To be of Tidy 
Appearance: Some Remarks upon Appropriate Dress 
of Saleswomen : To he able to Display Goods to the 
Best Advantage : Hints about Arranging Stock in 
Show-cases and in Windows.— Advantages of Selling 
for Cash. — Avoid the Credit System. — A Sugge.^tion of 
How it May be Done. 
Dear Madam : 

There are a few more points to which I wish to call your 
attention while considering how to sell goods. 

5. — A ."iuccessful saleswoman must present a tidy appear- 
ance. 

This would seem to be included in my second point that 
she must be agreeable, for no one will pretend that an un- 
tidy person is an agreeable person ; but in order to bring 
it more prominently to your attention I have set it by 
itself. .^ 

What a lady should wear to church, to a party or in the 
street is a matter that can safelv be left to her own taste 



•^1 

and good judgment, but what she should appropriately 
wear when engaged in her daily occupation, my observation 
leads me to say, cannot, in all cases, be thus intrusted. 
I have seen a saleswoman so loaded down with cheap jew- 
elry that it rattled as she moved about ; another who wore 
a soiled, colored silk : another whose hair was arranged in 
anything but a tasteful manner. In all of these instances, 
each one thought she was making an impression. So she 
was, but a different one from what she intended, for. as she 
turned away, I observed glances between the customers 
that told plainly what was passing in their minds. The 
main thing that you wish to secure for your store is a rep- 
utation for good taste. This once well established and your 
fortune is made. You can never obtain a reputation if you 
permit your saleswoman to offend all ideas of good taste 
in the ways that I have indicated above. The dress should 
be of some neutral color and of a material adapted to the 
season, while the quality should evidently be within the 
means of the wearer. It should fit perfectly. Collar and 
cuffs, if worn, small and scrupulously clean. In the ar- 
rangement of the hair I suppose you will not take my 
advice and adopt that style that is more becoming to the 
contour of your face and the shape of your head. You 
will follow che fashion, but let me urge you to follow it 
and not get ahead of it. When "bangs" first came into 
fashion, some carried this mode of dressing the hair to such 
an extent, that it was hard to tell whether they were de- 
scendants of the Chickasaw Indians or relatives of the 
American buffalo, and some ladies who affect "frizzes" 
look as if they had lifted the scalp of their colored sisters. 
Now in a business into which taste enters so largely and 
whose success or failure will depend upon the reputation 
for good taste which you may acquire, you cannot afford 



83 

to have your saleswoman careless in this matter of personal 
appearance. 

Let a lady enter a store where the saleswoman is attired 
iji the neat and appropriate manner I have indicated. She 
approaches the customer and addresses her in a pleasant 
and agreeable tone. (You will observe that your over- 
dressed or illy-dressed saleswoman is always a loud talker.) 
The impression on your customer is instantaneous and 
favorable. She sets her down as a woman of taste. She 
insensibly determines to be guided by her judgment, and 
in selecting a Hat you will find her constantly asking for 
the saleswoman's opinion. Such a saleswoman seldom fails 
to effect a sale. 

0. — A successful saleswoman will see that the goods are 
displayed to the best advantage. 

Whether your store is rich in plate glass windows and 
large show cases, or you have only a four-hat show-case at 
the door of your modest establishment, you will find it of 
great advantage to have it present the best possible appear- 
ance. Take a lesson from the dry-goods men. They 
frequently engage a clerk from his reputation as a window 
dresser. He is expected to have as handsome a display in 
the window as any of the neighboring stores, and to sur- 
pass them when possible. Every week the window is 
entirely re-arranged. If he has any new goods he puts 
them in ; if he has not, the re-arrar«gement makes people 
think he has, and those who passed it the day before 
without stopping because they were familiar with its con- 
tents, now pause before it and really think that they see 
new goods. They see old goods but in a different light 
and at a better advantage. As a result the goods now 
attract attention and are often purchased, when before they 
were passed by with no thought of ever becoming their 



possessor. Therefore, take, I say, a lesson from this. If 
you have a wiudow re-arrange its contents weekly. Add 
something new if possible. Then will ladies stop each time 
they pass. If you succeed in thus attracting their atten- 
tion, very often they will come in to examine. If they 
examine, the chance of selling is very much increased. 

What I have said about the re-arrangement of the stock 
in the windows applies equally as well to the stock on the 
shelves and in the inside show-cases. Don't let your cus- 
tomers feel that you have nothing new. Don't let them 
become accustomed to seeing the same yellow Hat in the 
same particular corner throughout the season nor let them 
find a cardinal Hat always in the same place. If you get 
a few fresh goods during the season put them well to the 
front. When your customer has purchased what she desired, 
call her attention to these in a casual way as something 
that may be of interest to her. In many cases they are, 
and if she has found you agreeable thus far, often she will 
purchase some articles of which she had no intention when 
she entered. 

I think if you will follow the suggestions I have thus far 
made and work out in your own ingenious way the lines of 
thought that they may suggest, you cannot fail to improve 
yourself in the art of selling. I would, however, suggest 
this. If you fail to sell to a customer who evidently wants 
something, try to discover the reason why. Does it lie in 
the goods or in yourself. Were the goods unsatisfactory in 
style, quality or manufacture, or didn't you take her right ? 
When you have decided upon the reason of your failure 
proceed to remove it as rapidly as possible. No one be- 
comes an artist in any profession without study and 
practice. You will never become an artist in selling in any 
other manner. Therefore, study your failures ; they may, 



34 

in the end, prove of more worth to you than your successes. 

And now I reach decidedly the hardest part of all. 

7. — The successful salesivoman ivill always sell for Cash. 

At least she will try to do it, though I admit it is not 
easy of accomplishment, and in some places impossible of 
achievement. In small towns, where all of your customers 
are know^n to you, it is probably regarded as unueighborly 
not to trust out your goods when asked. The farmer trusts 
the blacksmith, and the shoemaker gives credit to both. 
Why should the Milliner be the only one who requires cash 
down ? 

Where this system of credit is common, where each one 
waits for the other until the crops are in, the turkeys sold, 
or the pigs killed, I presume that you will have to go with 
the crowd, but at the same time this stubborn fact remains 
— that those Milliners who do a cash business, or nearly so, 
invariably succeed, while those that trust out their stock 
in a great many cases hopelessly fail. This is the result of 
my observation extending through many years. Milliners 
who had every natural advantage, pleasing manners, bright, 
taking ways, good taste and skillful fingers have gone down 
out of sight, because, at the end of the season, their stock 
was scattered over the country and they could neither re- 
cover it nor get the money for it. Therefore, determine to 
trust only when you are absolutely sure of your pay and 
there is no other way to make a sale. Remember that 
goods on your shelves can be made to pay your debts, but 
goods trusted out are of little use for this purpose. Do not 
try to sell to people who are slow pay. You might as well 
offend by refusing credit, as to offend, as you will, if you 
get your pay, by persistent dunning. If there is another 
Milliner !n the town, be neighborly and turn these customers 
over to her. ^ 



y^r, 



1 once knew a lady who combaited thin pernicious credit 
system quite successfully in this way. She started business 
in a town where everyone got trusted and never thought 
of being asked for money under a year. She put her goods 
at the same prices as the other Milliners. They added a 
good profit on account of the long credit demanded. Then 
she deducted five per cent, for cash. This is twenty-five 
cents on a five dollar Hat. It was quite wonderful how 
many would raise the money in order to secure this reduc- 
tion ; for a five dollar Hat at four dollars and seventy-five 
cents seemed so cheap that it was really worth while to 
try to raise the cash. Twenty-five cents' worth of goods 
were sold for twenty-four ; a dollars' worth for ninety-five, 
and in this way she soon secured all of the cash trade. 
Of course, the other Milliners had to follow her example, 
but the whole business in that town was vastly improved. 



LETTER VIII. 
A Possible Slander: A Tendency of Women to Trust to 
their Memory rather than to Pen and Ink.— The objects 
of Bookkeeping.— Cash Account; Different Ways of 
Keeping; A Short Way Suggested.— Personal Expense, 
How Kept.— Petty Expenses ; What they are and how 
to keep. 
Dear Madam : 

A crusty old bachelor says that the reason why baker's 
bread is uniform while the housewife's runs, in a month, 
through all the variations from bad to excellent, lies in 
the fact that the one measures his ingredients, w^hile the 
other guesses at them ; and adds, that the female mind is 
so adverse to accuracy that it prefers to jump at a con- 
clusion with a chance of missing it, than to use tlie slower 
process of surely reacliing it by steps of equal length ; and 



36 

he backs up his assertion by citing the fact that a woman 
does not tell you to knit so many inches, but so many 
"finger's lengths," forgetful, apparently that these useful 
members o^ the human body vary in length, and present 
all grades of appearances, from the stubbiness which calls 
to mind the fingers of the ginger-bread images of our 
youth, to the' elongation that reminds us of the ribs of a 
palm-leaf fan ; that a yard is the distance from her nose to 
the tip of her outstretched finger, oblivious of the fact 
that to the variations in the length of fingers, she has 
now added the inconstant quantity of the length of a nose, 
and so produced "confusion worse confounded/" 

Without indorsing this possible slander, I must confess 
that, in the matter of figures, there is a tendency to trust 
to the memory rather than to pen and ink ; to hope that 
it will come out right rather than know, and to guess 
there is money enough to meet a bill rather than to feel a 
certainty. This is largely the result of faulty education. 
In many schools the object seems to be to teach a girl 
thoroughly sfibjects for which she will have little or no 
use, under the i)lea of disciplining her mind, and to give 
but little attention to matters that are of vital importance 
to her in after life. Hence your knowledge of accounts is 
probably limited, and has been chiefly gained by painful 
experience since you began business. I do not propose 
to give you a treatise upon bookkeeping, nor expect that 
any of you whose business is large enough to require the 
services of a professional bookkeeper, will find this letter 
particularly interesting, but I do intend that those whose 
business is wholly in their own hands, shall find something 
of profit in what follows. 

The primary object of bookkeeping is to show whence 
your money c^mes and w^hither it goes ; and a secondary 



object is to eiial)le you to tell whether you are conducting 
the business at a gain or at a loss ; and you must carry 
out these objects in so plain a manner that, in case of your 
death or reverse m business, a stranger can readily ascer- 
tain these facts from your book. 

First, — Whence the money comes and ■whither it goes. 

This is shown l>y the Cash Account. On the debtor side 
you place the amount of cash you have on hand when the 
account is opened. In regular order, you also place on 
the same side all the amounts received, from whom and 
for wiiat. On the credit side you place all the sums you 
pay out, indicatirfg to whom and for wha*. each payment 
is made. Tlie difference between the two sides should 
always be the amount on hand, and the difference should 
be found every day. No business person Mali let anything 
but death prevent him from balancing his Cash Account 
daily. The reasons are so plain that I will not take the 
space to set them forth. As to form of Cash Account 
there are two. The common one is to take any account 
l)ook of suitable size with one set of money columns ruled 
on the right hand margin of each. page. On the left hand 
page write in a bold hand, Cash, Dr. In the same manner 
on the right hand page, write Cash, Cr. The account will 
tlien be contained on two opposite pages. Then, in the 
margin of left hand page, place the date, and in the broad 
space the transaction, and in the money column at the 
right, the amount of the transaction. Observe that the 
cents' column is narrow, as only two figures are ever 
entered there, Miiile the dollars* column is wide enough 
for three or four figures. Care must be taken in writing 
these amounts that the figures are fairly made and that 
tliey stand directly ufider each otlier ; otherwise, when the 
columns are long, you will be delayed in the addition by 



)8 



your attempts to decipher the figures and to determine 
whether a 5 in the dollars" column should be with tens or 
the hundreds. 

Perhaps the most satisfactory way, as it is the most 
compact, of keeping the Cash Account, is this. Select a 
book which has double money columns in the right-hand 
margin of each page. Then the account will be opened by 
writing Cash Account, Dr., Cr. The amounts which in 
the former method were entered upon the left-hand page, 
will now be put in the k\^t-hand money column, and those 
which were entered on tlie right-hand page will now be 
made in the right-hand column of same page. An inspec- 
tion of the following account will render this explanation 
clear. 



1883. 



CASH. 



June 


1 








'< 




3 ■ 




. n 



To Am't on hand 

By 1 year's Rent 

To Mrs. Smith, on acc't 

• ' Cash Sales 

By Personal Expense 

'' Wages, Mary Jones, one week. 
To Mrs. Brown, nni't of bill 

" Miss Etta Field, bal. of acc't. . . 

' ' Cash Sales 

By Hill Bros., on acc't, P. O. order 

" yards Silk 

To Cash Sales 

" Mrs. Ely, in lull of acc't 

By Petty Expenses 

" Deposited in Mechanics' Bank. 

*' Balance to new acc't 



June ! 4 To Balance from old acc't 37 02 



Cr. 



3.-) 00 



() 2r) 
7 00 



r)() 00 

1) 00 



I 13 
75 00 
37 02 

210 40 



The incoming cash will ])e chiefly from three sources : 
payments on account, payments in full and cash sales. 



39 

There are many ways to keep the cash sales. Probably 
the old, familiar one is good as any. Place in the drawer 
each morning change sufficient for the day's use/ say from 
three to five dollars, and note it on a slate. This slate 
should be fitted to slide under the counter near the money 
drawer. Whenever a casli sale is made the amount should 
be entered on the slate, with remarks, if needful. At 
close of business, these several amounts should be added 
and from their sum take the amount put into the drawer. 
The difference will be the cash sales for the day, to be 
entered in your cash account. 

The ways for the outgoing cas,h, as you have probably 
found, are much more numerous. Rent, wages, and the 
wholesale dealer will be the chief items. It is not wise to 
keep any considerable sum of money by you. Besides the 
danger from theft, fire and loss, it is a constant induce- 
ment for you to buy things that are not actually needful. 

If there is a bank in your town, deposit your cash there. 
If there is none, it is a good plan to remit any money not 
actually needed in the business to the wholesale house 
with which you deal, to be applied to the reduction of 
your account. If your goods have been bought on three 
months, and at the end of one month you find yourself 
with a hundred dollars or any smaller sum, for which you 
have no immediate use, remit it. The house will doubtless 
make you an allowance for such payments sufficient to 
cover the expense of transmission and to prove satisfactory 
to you. Such a course would keep your credit "gilt-edged," 
leave you but a small sum to raise when the bill became 
due, and you escape the danger of losing your money or 
from parting with it for some patent churn, some self- 
rocking cradle or eternally blooming roses. 

The item of Personal Expense may need a little explansi^ 



40 

tion. If you are single aud board, the main items in this 
account will be for board and clothing. You should 
procure a small book and open a personal account in the 
same way as this Cash Account is opened. You should 
debit it with the money taken from the business, and 
credit it with all of the expenditures, even to the five 
cents given to that tormentor of humanity — the organ- 
grinder. If you are a housekeeper, the account may be 
opened under the name of Household Expense, and treated 
in a similar manner. This account must of necessity be 
more extensive than a personal one, but it should be kept 
with equal care and minuteness. Experience will suggest 
to you several ways to shorten your work. 

The difference between the debtor and creditor sides of 
the account will be the amount of money in the purse, 
unless a mistake has been made. This difference should 
be frequently found. You can the more easily remember 
any omissions. 

The item of Petty expense includes sundry small ex- 
penses, chargeable to the business, but which would occupy 
too much space if entered singly. A small pass-book may 
be kept and labelled Petty Expense. In this enter what is 
expended for brooms, matches, nails, etc. At convenient 
times debit the account with a sum needful to balance it, 
and credit your Cash Account with a like amount. Keep 
this account as small as possible. A cent saved here is a 
cent gained. 

Find the balance of your Cash Account daily, and count 
the cash on hand to prove the correctness of your work. 
It is not necessary to formally balance, as above, oftener 
than once a week or once a month in small businesses. 
One thing more. Never receive cash in any considerable 
amount without offering to give a receipt for it. Never 



41 

pay cash in any amounts witlioui insisting upon a receipt 
for it. Don't tlirow these receipts loosely into a drawer 
filled with odds and ends, nor give them to the baby for 
its amusement. Fold them lengthwise, endorse across the 
end the maker's name, for what, the amount and date, 
thus : John Smith, Rent. $20, June 3, 1882. Tie between 
two pieces of cardboard ; endorse on one side, thus : 
Receipts, 1882. At end of year put them safely away 
where you can readily find them if occasion requires. This 
occasion may not offer once a year, but it is sure to come, 
and tlie satisfaction of being able to quickly produce the 
receipt will more than compensate you for the trouble and 
give the other party an exalted opinion of your business 
methods. 



42 

LETTER IX. 

Bookkeeping, Continued; Individual Accounts; How Kept; 
Example.—Mode of Entering the Items.— Taking Ac- 
count of Stock ; How to Proceed ; Example ; Necessity 
of Exactness in a Small Business ; Why f — An Inci- 
dent. 
Dear Madam: 

If you will procure another book ruled similarly to the 
one used for a Cash Account in my last, you will find that 
you have all of the books necessary to quite an extensive 
business. If your book is a long one, by ruling one or 
more double lines similar to the one at the top of each 
page, you may divide the page into two or more spaces for 
short accounts. You will be able to judge the probable 
length of each customer's accounts. Appropriate, then, 
what seems the right amount of space to each. For exam- 
ple, suppose the first account opened is with your wholesale 
house. You will write it thus : 



1882. 



HILL BROTHERS. 



DR. 



CR. 



Sept. 



4 By Invoice, Sept. 1 . . 

9 To Cash, P. O. Order 

25 By Invoice, Sept. 20. 

I Etc., Etc. 



50 



00 



325 

87 



27 
50 



The word invoice in bookkeeping is used to designate 
what, in ordinary language, we call the bill, er the bill of 
the goods. These invoices should be folded, endorsed and 
filed in the same manner as. the receipts in my last letter. 
This should be your rule in reference to all business papers 
and letters. File them systematically and orderly, so that 
a bill or letter of any date may be readily found when the 
occasion arises. As the above account will probably con- 
tinue for some time, twi) oi- tliree pa;.;t*!:^ should ])e left 



43 

blank after it for the extension. If the page is long, it is 
well to balance the acc®unt once or twice in the same 
manner as the Cash Account in the last ; it saves frequent 
additions and keeps more prominently before you the exact 
amount of your indebtedness and mildly suggests the 
necessity of reducing it as fast as possible. When the page 
is filled open the accounts on the next page and bring up 
tlie balance or say "Am'ts. bro't. f'w'd.," and put each 
amount in its respective column. Accounts with your cus- 
tomers are kept in the same manner as the one above. 
Remember that what they take from you goes into the 
Debtor column, while what you take from them, cash, 
goods returned, discounts allowed them, etc., goes into the 
Creditor column. 

All entries should be as brief as possible and at the same 
time intelligible. Hence we do not write 6 yards of Silk, 
but G yds. Silk. The names of all articles should begin 
with a capital and nearly all abbreviations. Thus, Ribbons, 
Feathers and Flowers, which in a friendly letter or in or- 
dinary descriptions begin with a small letter, must, in 
bookkeeping, begin with a capital. If you are in doubt, 
the bills from your wholesale house, will, in most cases, 
set you right. Attention to this point and care in making 
figures will give your books a neat and business-like ap- 
pearance. 

Many wholesale houses send out monthly statements. 
Whenever you receive one compare it with the account in 
your book and see if it agrees. If it does not, take im- 
mediate steps to ascertain the reason. It is an old adage 
that short accounts make long friends ; therefore, the time 
to correct an error is when it is discovered. 

Once a year an account of stock should be taken, pre- 
paratory to ascertaining whether your business has been 



44 

profitable in tlie past year. The time to do this is when 
l)nsiness is the dullest and the stock at the lowest. If 
your stock is small, rule several sheet of cap paper for this 
purpose, or a thin blank book may be procured. Begin in 
a systematic manner in one part of your store and take 
everything as yon go ; otherwise, if you are interrupted, 
or if you should be occupied several days in the task, many 
articles will be overlooked. Put down the quantity of each 
article and its cost price, which you probably affixed when 
you marked your goods. In the case of articles that you 
have made up from materials purchased you will doubtless 
be able to affix a cost-price sufficiently exact for this pur- 
pose. Foot up the amount of these various items and you 
will have the cost of your stock on hand. Some of this 
stock, having gone out of fashion or become shop- worn, 
will not bring its cost ; but, on the other hand, the salable 
part will bring a profit and so it is safe to assume that the 
stock is good for its cost, unless you are obliged to sell out 
at auction. The next item is store fixtures, shelves, coun- 
ters, show-cases, etc. You know- what these cost you. Put 
them down at that figure less ten, fifteen or twenty per 
cent., according to the length of time used. Then go over 
your book accounts. On sheets of properly ruled paper, or 
in the Stock-book, enter the names of each person owing you 
and the amount of the indebtedness. Then in the same man- 
ner make a list of those you owe and the amount. If you 
have any notes or due-bills owing you put them down 
under the head of Bills Receivable. So if you have any 
of your own notes out put them dpwn as Bills Payable. 

Yon are now ready to sum up the results of this prepar- 
atory labor. Take a sheet of paper ruled like your Account- 
Book. For the want of a better name head it Balance-Sheet. 
Now, as in a regular account, enter your Resources. Then 



45 



in its proper column enter the Liabilities, the last of which 
is your Original Capital. You may not at first see why 
this is a Liability. If some one had loaned you the thousand 
dollars with which to begin business that would plainly be 
a Liability. It is the same if the money was your own. 
You have loaned it to the business, and the business must 
show that it can repay it and have something left, other- 
wise you are running behind and it is time for you to 
consider the cause. When you have all the items entered, 
if the Resources are the larger sum, the difference between 
it and the sum of the Liabilities is the amount of Net Gain 
which is to be added to the Original Capital and thus form 
the new capital for the next year. Your Balance Sheet 
will appear something like this : 

1883. BALANCE SHEET. 



RESOURCES. 

Stock 

Store Fixtures, less 10^. . 

Book Accounts 

Bills Receivable 

Cash in Mechanics' Bank 
Hand 

LIABILITIES. 

Book Accounts 

Bills Payable 

Original Capital 

Net Gain 133 05 

New Capital 



425 
120 
325 
125 
235 
63 



151 

75, 
50 
75 
28 



1295 43 



127 38 
35l 



1133 05 



1295 43 



Thus it appears that you have made a Net Gain of 1 133. 05 
as a result of the year's bubiness ; and you start in the 
next year with a capital increased by that amount. It 
must be borne in mind that this is not your Gross Gain, 



4<> 

for you have had your liviug out of the husiness. If yo« 
have bought any real estate, personal property such as a 
piano, horse and wagon, etc.. from the proceeds of youi 
business, these should be entered under Resources and sc 
increase your Net Gain. Professional bookkeepers may 
smile at the simplicity of the above Balance Sheet, but I 
beg these learned gentlemen to bear in mind that these 
letters are not written for their edification, but for the as- 
sistance of those who are beginning business in a small 
way and desire to keep their accounts in the simplept and 
most expeditious manner, and, at the same time, have them 
business-like. If they have followed carefully this and the 
preceding letter I think they will be able to do so. 

No matter how small your capital is, no matter how in- 
significant your business when compared with many you 
know, keep your accounts, your business papers, with all 
the care and exactness that you think you would bestow 
upon a business of ten thousand a year. I say " think you 
would," for if you do not bestow care iipon a small bus- 
iness you would not on a large, and in the end it will get 
away from you. Eemember that the faithful servant who 
had two talents committed to his care received the same 
reward as he to whom five were given. 

Why do I insist upon such exactness in conducting a 
small business? Let me tell you an incident that came 
under my own observation. In an interior town lived a 
blacksmith ; ingenious, industrious, hard working. The 
town was small and sleepy. This man was the only black- 
smith in it. He did all the work in his line that the town 
needed. He kept his accounts, the few he had to keep, on 
a slate, on pieces of paper, hung on a nail, nor did he neg- 
lect to use the walls of his shop for his customers who 
were slow to pay. With his small business and in an honest 



neighborhood, he had enough to eat and clothes sufficient 
to give liim a respectable appearance. If he had any more 
he didn't know it. In course of time some capitalists 
discovered that the town was advantageously situated for 
manufacturing purposes. Large tracts of property were 
bought, buildings erected and the population rapidly in- 
creased. Business flowed in upon our blacksmith. He 
enlarged his shop and had a score of men in his employ ; 
kept his accounts in the old way and never had any money. 
Large sums were paid, him, but larger sums were demanded 
of him. He couldn't tell what became of his money. He 
thought he employed too many hands. He discharged 
some. Then he couldn't turn out his work promptly. 
His customers grumbled ; and, when one of his discharged 
men opened a shop, left him and transferred their custom 
to his rival. The end came soon ; he was sold out and 
never recovered from the blow. In his old age he works 
by the day in his rival's shop. Why? Because when the 
opportunity came to do a large business he wasn't prepared 
for it ; and some one says that there is no resurrection for 
a lost opportunity. 

It is possible, nay it is probable, that some of the readers 
of the Gazette are now doing business in a small, sleepy 
town. I trust that no one is doing after the manner of 
the blacksmith. The opening of a railroad, the discovery 
of minerals, the utilizing of a water-power may wake up 
that town and send a current of business through it too 
powerful to be controlled by the easy-going methods of the 
present. If you can keep a small business snug, neat and 
clean have no fear but that you can adapt yourself to any 
increase that may come upon you. A well-made rubber 
band holds three papers firmly in place ; because it does 
that, it will hold a hundred with the same ease. 



48 

LETTER X. 

Habits; What They Are and the Kinds. — Care Needed to 
Form Business Habits. — Habits that are Deemed Es- 
.sential to Business Success. — A Habit of Pleasing 
Address ; Necessity of, and its Advantages. — A Habit 
of Readiness. — What it is, and hoio Gained. — A Habit 
of Punctuality. — Examples of Noted Men in this Re- 
spect. — What Dr. Matthews says. 



" Habit at first is but a silken thread. 
Fine as the light-winged gossamers that sway. 
In the warm sunbeams of a summer day ; 
A shallow streamlet, rippling o'er its bed ; 
A tiny saphng ere its roots are spread ; 
A yet unhardened thorn upon the spray ; 
A lion's whelp that has not scented prey ; 
A little smiling child obedient led. 
Beware! that thread may bind thee as a chain. 
That streamlet gather to a fata' sea ; 
That sapling spread into a gnarled tree ; 
That thorn, grown hard, may wound and give thee pain ; 
That playful whelp, his murderous fangs reveal ; 
That child a giant, crush thee 'neath his heel." 



Dear Madam : 

You have often, in the kindness of your heart, excused 
a person for eome disagreeable performance by remarking 
that it IS his habit ; thus implying that he has repeated 
this disagreeable action so often that he is unconscious of 
its performance. It has become a habit. 

Habits are of two kinds ; natural and acquired. A nat- 
ural habit is a certain peculiarity of action, common to 
individual members of the same family They may be seen 
in speech, gait and gestures wherein the son imitates the 
father, or the daughter takes after the mother. There are 
also certain mental characteristics that distinguish membere 
of tlie same family ; they are lavish or sparing, proud or 
humble, but in either case it is the habit of the family. 
An acquired habit, as the name implies, is one that can be 
gained. An action, forcible at first, becomes by repeated 



49 

perforniance, easy of acconiplishnient. It is a habit. We 
all know something of the power of habit. We are familiar 
w^ith the comparison w^hich likens it unto cobwebs, at 
first, of whose restraint we are unconscious and from 
which we can easily break away ; but which, in the end, 
becomes chains of steel whose bondage is irksome and 
whose links we can never break. There is no action so dis- 
agreeable at first but that its repeated and persevering 
performance will not render it pleasant. So there is no 
good action whose accomplishment we now find difficult 
but that the frequent and untiring doing of the same, will 
not render it easy of performance. 

Since these things are so, it becomes you, dear madam, 
to take a careful inventory of your business habits ; first, 
to see how many you have ; second, to see if you have 
any from which you had better break away ; third, to see 
what ones you must set about resolutely to acquire. Now, 
to aid you in this task of self-examination, I propose to 
set forth in this letter, and perhaps the next, some of the 
habits that seem to me essential to the achievement of 
what you desire — business success. 

First. — A habit of a pleasant address. Bear in mind 
that I say a habit, that is, an involuntary tendency to ad- 
dress your customers pleasantly, no matter what may have 
recently occurred in your business to excuse you, to your- 
self, for addressing them otherwise. It takes a remarkable 
control of temper to turn from a piece of elegant silk upon 
which a blundering assistant has just upset a glass of 
water, or has spotted with oil from the sewing-machine, 
and meet a professional shopper with a pleasant address. 
I doubt if there is any man in the Millinery trade that can 
do it. But a woman can. It requires uncommon self-pos- 
session when seated in the sliop-rooni at a delicate piece of 



Work with your niaterialK arranged, to rise and disturb 
them and explain to Mrs. (jradabout that jovi really cannot 
contribute anything towards supplying the Hottentots 
with warming-pans, notwithstanding that she pleads their 
utter destitution of this article the Greenlander finds so 
useful. To such an appeal under such circumstances a man 
would answer with a No, so large that the good, but mis- 
taken, woman would neglect the Hottentots to tell of it to 
his disadvantage, from one end of the village to the other. 

By a pleasant address, I do not mean a silly, simpering, 
affected manner, as disagreeable to the eye as it is offensive 
to the ear. This mode of address may be borne in society 
by brainless young men, especially if the users of it have 
money. Let your tones be clear, pleasant and musical, not 
rough, loud and harsh, under the mistaken idea that the 
latter are manly, and, wdth a logic peculiarly feminine, 
therefore, business-like ; look your customer in the eyes, 
modestly, and no matter how often she repeats a seemingly 
useless question, answ^er it as interestedly as at first. Let 
her see that you are apparenth^ as desirous of answering 
the questions, as she is ready to propound them. 

Your pleasant address will be remarked to your advan- 
tage. People will speak of you as one with whom it is a 
jDleasure to transact business, thereby inducing others to 
call upon you ; and in the end you will find it pays to 
practice assiduously all the skill in this direction that yoH 
naturally possess. 

Second. — A habit of readiness. This habit belongs both 
to the body and to the mind. Under the physical habit of 
readiness I place the ability to meet a customer promptly 
when she enters the store. No customer likes to wait, 
while you wind up several spools of silk or put in order 
pieces of ribbon, lay aside a book or rise reluctantly from 



51 

your seat. It gives her a disagreeable impression of yoii, 
whicli yoa cannot fail to deepen before her call is over. 
Learn to measure goods skillfully and quickly : to take 
down two boxes at a time without dropping one ; to know 
where to find your scissors. If you cannot do these things, 
practicf^ when alone. One of England's foremost men, 
Charles James Fox, when appointed Secretary of State, 
was piqued at some remark about his bad writing ; he 
actually took a writing-master and wrote copies like a 
school -boy until he had sufficiently improved himself. 
Certainly, with such an illustrious example before you, you 
need not hesitate to practice anything in which you find 
yourself deficient. 

The habit of mental readiness will stand you in good 
stead through all of your business career and be of great 
advantage in your social intercourse. As a people we do 
not lack this. Dash is characteristic of us. The speed with 
which our Western people decide and act almost takes the 
breath away from us in the East. But individually there 
are many of us who are slow. We don't think quickly. 
We are like Artemus Ward in respect to oratory. When 
called upon suddenly to make a few remarks, he said : "I 
have a gift of oratory, but don't happen to have it about me 
just now." How often have you thought, after a customer 
has left, what a neat reply you could have made if you 
had only thought of it when she was present. How many 
bright things you have said to yourself when alone. After 
the event we can think of what we ought to have done. 
You remember the story of Baron Munchausen. A tiger 
was ready to spring upon one side, and the extended jaws 
of a crocodile awaited him on the other. Doubtless many 
of us would have stood still and allowed ourselves to be 
divided impartially between our admirers; but the Barou 



52 

stepped aside only and the tiger disappeared down the 
crocodile's throat. If you lack readiness of wit, cultivate 
it. Keep your wits always about you ready for use. 

Third. — A habit of punctuality. Tliis is peculiarly a 
business virtue. Nothing inspires confidence in a business 
man or women like the possession of this virtue, and noth- 
ing sooner saps the mercantile strength than the want of it. 
Thousands have failed in every walk of life for the want 
of it. Unpunctuality is not only a vice, but it is the 
mother of a vicious progeny. It not only wastes your own 
time, but causes the waste of the time of others, who, in 
their turn, waste the time of those who depend upon them, 
until needless friction and discomfort are inflicted upon an 
entire community by unpunctuality of one individual. How 
punctual are the planets in their courses ! Did one of them 
but vary a half a minute in completing its revolution 
around the sun, into what inextricable ruin and confusion 
would the universe be thrown ! 

A young man wrote to Sir Walter Scott for advice. In 
Ins reply he says, "When a regiment is under march the 
rear is often thrown into confusion because the front do 
not move steadily and without interruption. It is the same 
thing in business. If that which is first in hand be not 
instantly, steadily and regularly despatched, other things 
accumulate behind, till affairs begin to press all at once, 
and no human brain can stand the confusion." 

Keep a watch whicli is accurate and regulate your ap- 
pointments by it. Captain Cuttle had a watch of which he 
said, "If he could remember to set it ahead a half hour 
in the forenoon, and back a quarter of an hour in the 
afternoon, it would keep time with anybody's watch."c: Too 
many business men have similar watches which they do 
not set ahead. Don't imagine that becaut-e you are late but 



53 

five minutes it is a small matter. A lilaii may be killed as 
effectively by a rifle ball as by a cauiion ball. "Take care 
of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves," 
is a familiar adage. He who is careful of the minutes will 
have plenty of time. No one has so much time to attend 
to anything as he who has the most to do, and does it. Wash- 
ington was a marvel of punctuality. Alexander Hamilton, 
at one time his secretary, excused himself for five minutes' 
lateness on the plea that his watch was slow. "Then, sir," 
said the great man, "you must either get a new watch or 
I must get a new secretary." 

John Quincy Adams has filled no small place in American 
affairs He was another economist of time and especially 
punctual. When in his old age he was a member of the 
House of Representatives, a gentleman observed that it was 
time to call tlie House to order. " No," said another, 
"Mr. Adams is not in his seat." The clock was found to 
be three minutes fast, and before this time had expired, 
Mr. Adams was in his seat. 

Keep not only special appointments, but all implied ones. 
Therefore be in your store in the regular hours. A cus- 
tomer comes a long distance and expects to find you there. 
She does not, and the vexation occasioned often results in 
transferring her custom to another shop. 

I fear that some who read this letter may assent readily 
to these generalities, but fail to make the personal applica- 
tion that I desire ^them to make. They remind me of the 
old farmer who always wished his clergyman to preach 
from the Old Testament. "He did like to hear those old 
sinners whaled !" ' ' Punctuality is a good thing, and I am 
glad to know," says one, "that all noted men have been 
punctual ones. It is an interesting fact to tell my children, 
but of what advantage it is to me in this little town where 



54 

no one expects another to do what he has promised within 
a week of the day set?" If this person will turn to the 
conclusion of my last letter, one reason will be found. I 
can only add that punctuality is business ; want of it, like 
children's store-playing, the motions and the talk sounds 
like business, but the results are not money. 

I cannot conclude this subject better than by using the 
words of Dr. Matthews, to whom 1 am also indebted for 
some ideas expressed above. He says : 

"Punctuality should be made not only a point of cour- 
tesy but a point of conscience. The beginner in business 
should make this virtue one of the first objects of his pro- 
fessional acquisition. Let him not delude himself with the 
idea that it is easy of attainment, or that he can practice 
it by and by, when the necessity of it shall be more cogent. 
It is not easy to be punctual, no, not even in youth ; but 
in after life, when the character is fixed, when the mental 
and moral faculties have acquired cast-iron rigidity, to 
unlearn the habit of tardiness is almost an impossibility. 
It sticks to the man, though his reason be fully convinced 
of its criminality and inconvenience." 



LETTER XI. 
Business Habits, Continued. — How Imperceptihly Formed. 
--A Habit of Application. — The Secret of Success in 
Ancient Times : High t and Wrong Application ; A 
Habit of Method : What it is.— The Cause of Many 
Failures. — Method in Small Things. — Anecdote. — ^4 
Habit of Accuracy. — Keep Your Promises. — A Habit 
of Despatch; What it is. — Dr. Mattheivs again. 



Habit is a. violent and treacherous school-mistress. She, by little and little, 
slyly and unperceived, slips in the foot of her authority, but having by this 



55 

gentle and humble beginning, with the aid of time, fixed and established it, 
she then unmasks a furious and a tyrannic countenance, against which we 
have no more the courage nor the power so nauch as to lift up our eyes. 
— Montaigne. 



Dear Madam : 

Paley says that man is a bundle of habits, and another 
philosopher asserts that all is habit in mankind, even virtue 
itself. Since we are made of habits it becomes us to see 
to it that these habits are good ones. Good habits cost no 
more to acquire than bad ones, and the expense of main- 
taining them is much less. Habits are of slow acquisition. 
Jeremy Bentham says : " Like flakes of snow that fall 
unperceived upon the earth, the seemingly unimportant 
events of life succeed one another. As the snow gathers 
together, so are our habits formed ; no single flake that is 
added to the pile produces a sensible change. No single 
action creates, however it may exhibit, a man's character ; 
but as the tempest hurls the avalanche down the mountain, 
and overwhelms the inhabitant and his habitation, so pas- 
sion, acting on the elements of mischief which pernicious 
habits have brought together by imperceptible accumulation, 
may overthrow the edifice of truth and virtue."' 

This is equally true of business habits, as of moral habits. 
And believing that your success or failure will depend upon 
your business habits, I continue the subject of my last 
letter and ask you to do your utmost to form, 

Fourth. — A habit of application. No one has attained 
success in any walk In life without this habit. The habit 
of steady industry is only gained by early attending to it. 
Put your whole energies into your business. It is as true 
now as it was thousands of years ago. What, then, was 
deemed the secret of success ? Here it is . " Seest thou a 
man diligent in his busines?, he shall stand before kings," 



5fi 

that in, lie shall succeed; "he shall not stand before mean 
men/' Jiien of low degree, that is, he shall not fail. AVhat 
is it to be diligent? The root of the word comes from the 
Latin language. There it means simply, to love. " Seest 
thou a man who loves liis busine^." He who truly loves 
any person or pursuit is enthusiastic about that person or 
pursuit. He can see no wrong in either ; admits no wrong ; 
pushes either to the front when occasion requires ; is filled 
with enthusiasm. In the end, enthusiasm wins the day. 
A Wall Street man said of a bank, that it never succeeded 
until it had a President who carried it to bed with him. 
But do not mistake what I mean by application. Some 
think it wholly physical. Hence obey consider that work- 
ing from seven in the morning until twelve at night is 
application. Whoever does this will eventually fail. Health 
must give away, and that must be a very successful bus- 
iness which can prosper when the head of it is ill. Devote 
every minute of business hours to your business. You 
cannot completely shut the cares of the business into the 
store when you close for the night. But you can leave a 
large part of the worry. If you are obliged to do both, 
the head-work and the hand-work of your business, be 
careful how you prolong your hours of labor. You are 
doing two women's work instead of one ; and howerer 
strong you may be now, in time your strength will prove 
your weakness. Cultivate the habit of application. Have 
a work for every moment and do every moment's work in 
the time assigned to it. Master your business in all its 
branches. Know all about the materials y<^u use ; where 
and how they are made ; why one is better than another. 
Your customers will soon see that you know ; tiiat your 
i>pinion is founded on something better than guess-work, 
and their confidence in you will be proportionally increased. 



Be diligent in your business, and you shall be as queens 
and not as those of low degree. 

Fifth, — The habit of method. Those wlio liave much 
work to do, can only do it by a method; Fuller, the. old 
divine, says: "One will carry twice more weight trussed 
and packed in bundles than when it lies untowardly flap- 
ping and hanging about his shoulders." Certainly he will 
carry it with more ease to himself and less annoyance to 
his neighbor. "Method,' says another old writer, " is like 
packing things in a Ijox ; a good packer will get in half 
as much again as a bad one." 

There is no business so mean or insignificant but that 
demands system ; and the loudne'ss of the demand increases 
with the importance of the business. Commissioners of 
bankruptcy say that the books of nine bankrupts out of 
ten are in a muddle — kept without plan or method. Tliere- 
fore systemize your business and your work if you would 
succeed. Have places for everything, and see that you and 
your assistants return everything to its place. Keep your 
silk scraps in one bag, your cotton in another. Divide the 
drawers into compartments for keeping the odds and ends 
that are useful in business. They can then be readily 
found Arrange your spools of silk so that you can pick 
out the colors in the dark. Watch yourself and your as- 
sistants and see how much time is wasted daily in hunting 
for needful articles. Perhaps it is a hammer to open a 
case of goods. The first question is, 'Where's the ham- 
mer ?" It IS not in its place for it never had one. When 
used, it is usually left on the floor, until several have 
stumbled over it, when one with less patience or larger 
corns, gives it a throw out of the way and out of sight, 
"Where's the hammer?" No one know?. 'Get up, Jane, 
and see if it isn't un<ier you.' Jane arises. In so doing. 



drops her scissors ; then a spool of thread which rolls under 
a counter. By this time her back hair feels shaky. She 
puts up her hand to save it. Down drops her work. She 
stoops to get it ; goes on her knees for the spool under the 
counter ; rises red in the face, and wishing all hammers at 
the bottom of the sea. 

I am reminded as I write this, of a Milliner in the village 
of my boyhood. She was one of those energetic, bustling, 
fussy people. Always in a hurry and never getting any- 
thing done. She never had time to arrange her hair except 
on Sundays when she sang treble in the village choir. On 
other days of the week, it was skewered up with long 
hair-pins that had a way of slowly rising out of her hair 
as the day wore on ; and the irreverent boys of the village 
judged of the time of day by the height of Aunt Betty's 
hair-pins. Now this good lady had a bag of buttons. It 
contained the accumulations of years. I have often seea 
the contents spread upon the counter as I passed by and 
two girls endeavoring to match a button. It was work of 
time ; for nearly every button picked up suggested a string 
of questions or a dozen exclamations. Meanwhile Aunt 
Betty's voice could be heard exhorting the damsels to 
speed, but with little effect ; no button was matched under 
a half an hour. This is but a sample of her management; 
always busy, but accomplishing little for the want of 
method. 

Sixth. — A habit of accuracy. Strive after this habit not 
only in your work, but in your speech. It is of the latter 
only that I shall speak. Keep your promises. Be slow of 
promising, but sure of performing. The customer that 
comes in on Monday wants her Hat for the following Sun- 
day ; for you have been long enough in the trade to have 
observed the close connection that exists between tht^ 



59 

church aud new Hats. The one who comes in on Saturday 
desires her Hat by the same time, and all of those who 
come in between these days seem suddenly to have awakened 
to the fact that they must go to church. Now it is self- 
evident that all cannot have Hats at the same time. Yet 
there are Milliners who think that they must promise even 
when they know that there is no chance to fulfill their 
promises. Perhaps the customer says : 'If you can't do it, 
I'll go across the street.' This seldom fails to bring the 
promise when the performance is very doubtful. It is bet- 
ter for your business success to lose the sale of a few Hats 
and establish a reputatior for accuracy of speech than to 
sell them at the expense of breaking your word. It will 
soon get about that when you promise a Hat at six o'clock 
it is sure to be there. The result will be more cash cus- 
tomers and better prices, People are willing to pay for 
certainties. 

Seventh. — A habit of despatch. The habits upon which 
I have insisted are more vital than this ; but if to those 
this be added, you have a fitting capital to a business column. 
Many will do their work well, accurately and punctually, 
but fail in business because they have never caught the 
knack of doing it quickly. Of course, thorovghness should 
never be sacrificed to quickness. The despatch I wish fol- 
lows from perfect thoroughness. To an energetic,. systematic 
person it matters but little how complex the business be. 
The more it tasks his faculties the more it increases his 
capacity of doing ; and a large amount of work is done 
with greater care than a small amount by a slow person. 

I commend to you these seven business habits. Take an 
inventory of your habits and see if they are among them. 
If so, see if you have them in a large or small degree. If 
you have them not, set about their formation to- day. It 



is uotorious that many a man who has risen to eminence 
in his profession or trade was disgusted at first. Their will 
dominate<l tin's inclination. They Porced themselves to like 
it. Do you remember the half-starved maid-of~all-work in 
the service of Sampson Brass and his sister Sally in Dickens's 
Old Curiosity Sliop ? Mr. Swiveller called her the Mar- 
chioness when lie placed cards with her, because it seemed 
more rral and pleasant to play with a Marchioness than a 
domestic slavy. And do you remember the famous feast 
that she described to him where she puts pieces of orange 
peel into water and makes believe it is wine? '* If you 
make believe very much," she says, "it is very nice." So 
there is a great deal in pretending to like a disagreeable 
but necessary work. In course of time it becomes a habit 
and you may actually take pleasure in doing what you 
forced yourself to do at first. There is this encouragement 
about the forination of business habits, when once formed, 
they act of themselves. The actions become as natural to 
you as breathing, and you perform them with equal uncon- 
sciousness. ■ , 

I cannot close this letter upon habits in more fitting lan- 
guage than that used by Dr. Matthews, whom I have 
already quoted. "To sum up all, what is business but 
habit, the soul of which is regularity? -J:- * * * But 
such habits as we have commended are not to be formed 
in a day, nor l)y a few faint resolutions. Not by accident, 
not by fits and starts — being one moment in a paroxysm of 
attention, and the next falling into the sleep of indiffer- 
ence — are they to be obtained, but by steady, persistent 
effort. Above all it is necessary that they should be 
acquired in youth ; for then do they cost the least effort. 
Like letters cut in the baik of a tree, they grow and 
v iden with age. Once attained they are a fortune of them- 



61 

selves ; for their possessor has disposed thereby of the 
heavy end of the load of Ufe ; all that remains he can 
carry easily an^ pleasantly. On the other hand, bad habits, 
once formed will hang forever on the xgheels of enterprise, 
and in the end will assert their supremacy, to the ruin and 
shame of the victim." 



LETTER XII. 

Buainess Success ; Peter C. Brook's Advice.— Competition 
Not an Evil; How it maij Work for Good; Hotv to 
Meet it.— Increase of Trade from it.— Recreation : 
Necessity of it ; Bij Books, Papers, Etc. ; A Summer 
Vacation. — True and False Success. — Conclusion. 
Dear Madam : 

Some one applied to the late Peter C. Brooks, one of 
Boston's most successful millionaires, for advice to be given 
a young man to secure his business success. The reply was 
brief and easily remembered. *' Let him mind his own 
business." This is true. Success is not gained by attend- 
ing to other people's Imsiness. Praising their methods, 
blaming their practices, criticising their habits will not 
increase the money in your till. Oiten th<^ result is to send 
an indifferent person to see if the reports are true, and her 
whom curiosity has drawn, tact will often keep, and so a 
customer is lost. Do not talk about your neighbor's busi- 
ness ; do not wonder how she can afford this expense or 
make any money by such a course. If she succeeds, your 
business judgment will be set down as of no account ; if 
she fail it is a practical commendation of your course which 
is weakened by the everlasting parrot-like exclamation of 
"I told you so !" Don't talk about your own business. 
If you are doing well this will be manifest in a score of 
other ways. The old store may be brightened up ; a larger 



{>2 

line of goods put in ; more assistance engaged. Any one of 
these will proclaim a successful business more thoroughly 
and effectually than hours of personal conversation. If 
you are not doing well, don't proclaim the fact to all of 
your friends and. yoRir acquaintances. The best of them 
will soon weary of the same dismal story and avoid you. 
But if affairs get too complicated for you to straighten 
them unaided, select one or two of your friends and lay 
the case before them for their advice, and, if needed, their 
assistance. By this means you may be able to tide over the 
shoals that are scattered in the river of success and soon 
sail with the current to the haven of prosperity. If so, 
you will be glad that you did not proclaim yourself a fail- 
ure to all the world. 

Competition sometimes frightens timid souls. It is, by no 
means, wholly an evil ; and she who conducts her business 
rightly has no reason to be fearful of it. Let us suppose 
that you are the only Milliner in a small town. You have 
a snug, safe, comfortable business. You can take your own 
time, set your own prices and no one can dispute you. 
One day you learn that a successful Milliner in the neigh- 
boring city proposes to establish a branch store in your 
village, or some young woman who has learned her business 
of you, thoroughly and effectually, as you must admit, pro- 
poses to open a parlor over by the church or across the 
river. Your first feeling is that these people are intruders, 
and you are indignant that they should invade, what you 
are pleased to call your territory. If there is but one grocer 
in the place, haven't you often wished that there might be 
another to teach him his business ; that another butcher 
might come around who wouldn't sell all of the best pieces 
before he reaches your door, and that the solitary stage 
driver might have enough competition to put a few more 



m 

oats into his bouy horses and consequent speed into their 
performances ? Doubtless one or all of these wishes have 
passed through your noiind. Is it not possible that Mistresses 
Grocer, Butcher & Co. have had similar thoughts about 
th(: Milliner, with this difference, that they have expressed 
them, but you have wisely held your peace. 

Let us see if competition can hurt you. I will assume 
that you have bought Good Goods, of the Latest Styles and 
at the Lowest Prices. Can your competitor do any more? 
You can have them set down in your shop as cheap as she 
( an. She can sell them at lower prices than I can ? She 
cannot and live, for the cost to her is the same as to you. 
She who sells below cost to draw custom must continue 
to do so to retain it. The length of time she will be able 
to do this will depend upon the contents of her purse or 
the patience of the wholesale house : neither of which is 
exhaustless, and you will soon come to your own again. 
She may make more stylish-looking Hats than I do? Yes, 
she may ; but there is no proof that she will. If you keep 
yourself posted by the latest Hat Plates, read carefully pre- 
pared Fashion articles, visit a live wholesale house as often 
as you can, and learn from the large stock what novelties 
are in the market, she cannot make more stylish Hats 
than you can unless she has greater skill in her fingers. 
Without competition you do not know how much skill is in 
your fingers. No one knows what she can do until she 
tries, or better, until she is forced to try. You will make 
better Hats with competition than without. So do not let 
competition trouble you. You were first in the field. If 
you sowed your seed wisely you will reap a bountiful crop, 
even if others cultivate the corners. 

But you are in a tow n where there are a plenty of Mil- 
liners and you hear that others are coming. Do you know 



64 

what they do in Spain when it rains? They let it rain; 
and it would be a mark of wisdom if people in other parts 
of the world were equally wise in regard to the weather 
and some other inevitable matters. If there are already a 
sufficient number of Milliners in your town to supply its 
wants in this direction, the new plants will die for want 
of nourishment. If some of those now in possession are 
"id the sere and yellow leaf," they will be pushed out, 
and deservedly, by the more vigorous plants. In either 
case you are safe. Generally an increase in the number of 
stores results in an increase of goods sold. This comes 
partly from an increase in the number of buyers and 
largely from an increase, real or imaginary, of the wants 
of the present buyers. Many a lady can recollect when two 
hats a year served her remarkably well. They don't do 
it now ; Mrs. A's new Hat means a new one for Mrs. B. 

When I was young there was a riddle which was current 
for the bewilderment of young persons. It was this : "What 
makes more noise under a gate than a pig?" After we had 
guessed everything from a country brass band to a scolding 
woman, we were quietly informed that it was two pigs. 
Now in a town where there are two Milliners more Hats 
are sold than if there were but one, and I am of the opinion 
that the net profits to each are as much as they would be if 
but one had the field. Therefore, don't dread competion. 
It will come. Accept it smilingly. It will make you put 
forth your best energies. That is not a misfortune, but a 
good. Buy your goods right, do your work well and tastily 
and you need fear no ill result. 

In looking over these letters I see that I have provided for 
your constant employment, and some of you may think that 
I intend you to pass all of your waking hours at business. 
If I have given that impression it is unintentional. I have 



65 

been so desirous to fill the space allotted me eacli month 
with hints that I thought would l>e of use to your business 
career that I have neglected to say anything about recre- 
ations. I have relied upon the young blood in you to assert 
itself and to cause you to take sufficient recreation for the 
preservation of your health. I have great respect for the 
old proverbs that have come down to us laden with the 
wisdom of our ancestors. There is one that tells us that 
" All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," and I think 
the same rule is a golden one for Jill. Now dullness is not 
what makes trade. A woman who starts in the morning 
with an elastic step and a fresh brain will out-sell, out-buy 
and out-work her that goes to business with a brain weary 
and one wherein last night's figures played '' hide and seek 
with rest and sleep." Give your business all the attention 
it needs, but to do that you must give your business brain 
an occasional rest. You will be fortunate if your business 
is such a distance from your house that it requires you to 
be in the open air, in all weathers, at least a half hour 
each day. This will give your blood a gool oxygenizing 
twice a day, rendered doubly necessary by the confined air 
of the store and the stooping posture necessitated by your 
business. Recreate your mind by reading the daily and 
weekly newspapers that you may know what goes on in the 
world. The press is now the great teacher and she will 
soon find herself on the dunce's stool who fails to heed the 
lessons it imparts. Study one paper devoted to your bus- 
iness. Do this that you may not drop behind your competi- 
tors. The inventive genius of the age is constantly pushing 
new designs and new combinations upon the market in all 
businesses. It is impossible that you should get early in- 
formation of these except through a paper devoted to your 
business. Read the current magazines that you may know 



66 

what is going on in art, literature and science. In other 
words, that you may be intelligent and converse intelligently 
•with your customers that desire such conversation. Besides, 
an intelligent Milliner has a better chance of sucoess than 
one. who neglects the means to make her so. If you have 
musical talent don't neglect to cultivate it ; some one says 
that a good hymn will drive away the devil ; certainly a 
pleasant song if only hummed to one's self will raise one's 
spirits greatly. Don't neglect to connect yourself with some 
of the benevolent associations of your town. Your position 
as a business woman demands that you take your part in 
public duties ; and your association with others will go a 
^reat ways to disabuse your mind of the impression that 
you have the hardest lot in the world. 

All of these things will serve daily to relax the mind. 
Hemember that the bow always bent either breaks or loses 
its elasticity. It is, then, a condition of business success 
that you give the mind these daily rests. 

Don't look upon the visits to your wholesale house as 
time lost. Regard them as recreations. Allow yourself 
time enough to do things leisurely. Every large city has 
liundreds of places that can be profitably visited. Its pic- 
ture galleries, its museums, its public works, its fashionable 
streets are all worthy of numerous and repeated vijits. 
Determine to see one or more of them at each visit. You 
will find some one in the house both ready and willing to 
give you all necessary information. 

In the course of a few years you will store up a fund of 
information that will be useful in many ways, and these 
business visits prove an excellent means of culture. 

But happy will the town and city Milliner be if each 
year shall give her a chance to take at least a week's 
vacation, when she can pack her trunk with clothes for 



67 

rough usage, and go into the hills and forests for rest. 
Blessed, indeed, if you have the 'old farm' to which you 
can return. We leave in youth with gladness, but in after 
life return to it with joy and delight, and are disappointed 
when the stones and the trees fail to respond to our de- 
lighted inquiries. Try to arrange your business to secure 
tliis relief. Don't imagine it will go to the dogs if you 
don't constantly watch it. If it has such a fondness for 
what Mr. Mantilini called the " demnition bow-wows," no 
amount of watching will ever attach it to you. You will 
find that some assistant, whose business ability you now 
little suspect, will, when placed in charge, develop remark- 
able powers in this respect, and on your return you will 
find that the business has lost nothing, but has actually 
gained. 

And now, dear madam, in closing this series of letters, 
I have, first, to return my thanks to you for the patience 
with which you have followed me from month to month ; 
second, for the commendation with which you have been 
kind enough to receive my efforts for your, may I say, 
instruction ; third, to express a hope that we shall, through 
the columns of the Gazette, continue the acquaintance 
which has been thus far so pleasant to me, and, may I 
hope, not disagreeable to you ; and to add just a few words 
in closing. They are these : Be patient, be cheerful, be 
hopeful and never despair. Don't expect to escape trials 
and perplexities. Don't think that the skies will always 
be bright. There will be nights when you will go home 
ready to sell out for six cents. There will be times when 
the sight of a Hat will make you shudder. I think I hear 
some bachelor friend say 'as if a woman ever saw that 
time !' but he isn't worthy of attention. You will be ut- 
terly discouraged. Now is the time for hope to come in, 



68 

and to tell you that there is no night that is not followed 
by the day ; that the sun shines brighter after the storm ; 
that there are still good fish in the sea as ever were 
caught, and that it is a long road that h s no turn. Then 
will your feminine nature, which takes a brighter view of 
things than we of the sterner sex are apt to do, come to 
your assistance and you will arise with fresh courage for 
the combat 

Do not despair, therefore, because to win prizes in bus- 
iness you must struggle against odds or against competitors. 
Dryden says that no man may ever fear refusal from any 
lady if he only gives his heart to getting her ; and certainly 
no woman will fail of success who adopts a similar way 
to win it. Lady Montague used to say : "If you wish 
to get on you must do as you would to get in through a 
crowd to a gate all are equally anxious to reach. Hold 
your ground and push hard. To stand still is to give up 
your hope." Be alive : be open-eyed ; work hard ; take 
needful recreation ; watch opportunities ; be rigidly lionest , 
hope for the best, and if you fail to achieve the amount of 
success upon which you have set your heart, which is pos- 
sible in spite of the utmost efforts, you will have the 
consciousness of having done your best, which, after all, is 
the true measure of any man's or woman's success. For 
success is not always to be measured in dollars and cents. 
We are not sent into the world simply, in the slang phrase 
of the day " to win a pile." Many a man has won his pile 
but missed personal happines. Many a man can count his 
gold by thousands ; his friends upon the fingors of one hand. 
Do you remember that touching interview in The Heart of 
Mid-Lothian between Jennie Deans and the Queen ? Jennie 
is interceding for her sister's life. She seems to me to set 
forth the true success of life. 



69 

"Alas! it is not when we sleep soft and wake merrily 
ourselves that we think on other people's sufferings. Our 
hearts are waxed light within us then, and we are for 
righting our ain wrangs and fighting our ain battles. But 
when the hour of trouble comes to the mind or to the body 
— and seldom may it visit your Leddyship — and when the 
hour of death comes, that comes to high and low — lang and 
late may it be yours ! Oh, my Leddy, then it isna what 
we have dune for oursells but what we have dune for others, 
that we think on maist pleasantly. And the thoughts that 
ye hae intervened to spare the puir thing's life will be 
fiweeter in that hour, come when it may, than if a word 
of your mouth could hang the haill Porteous mob at the 
tail of ae tow !" 

Yes, that is a success we can all attain if a money one 
be denied us. It is one which the promptings of your 
heart will be sufficiently powerful to urge you to achieve 
without any words of mine. 

" What shall I do lest life in silence pass?" 

And if it do ! 
And never prompt the bray of noisy brass, 

What need'st thou rue ? 
Remember aye the ocean deeps are mute ; 

The shallows roar ; 
Worth is the ocean — Fame is the bruit. 

Along the shore. 

" What shall I do to be forever known ?" 

Thy duty ever 1 
" This did full many who yet sleep unknown," 

Oh 1 never, never ! 
Think'st thou perchance that they remain unknown 

Whom thou know'st not? 
By angel trumps in heaven their praise is blown ; 

Divine their lot. 

" What shall 1 do to gain eternal life ? 

Discharge aright 
The simple dues with which each day is rife?" 

Yea, with thy might. 
Ere perfect scheme of action thou devise, 

Will life be fled. 
While he who ever acts as conscience cries 

Shall live, though dead. — Schiller. 



70 



Ordering Goods by Letter. 

Railroads, telegraphs, fast freight lines, and expresses 
here have shortened distances to such an extent, that 
practically, our most remote Western States are no further 
away from New York, than Albany and Buffalo were 
twenty-five years ago. Competition between the different 
modes of transportation is now sharp, that there is a strong 
rivalry between the several companies to see which one 
can put down goods, at your door with the quickest dis- 
patch and in the best condition. 

As a sequence the manner of doing business has changed. 
Years ago the retail dealer visited New Y^'ork but once a 
year. Then he laid in a stock sufficient in his estimation, 
to last a year. If in that time he got out of a particular 
article his customers had to wait until lie again went to 
the city. All of this has changed. Goods are now brought 
to your door, as it were. This is done by traveling sales- 
men and by the mails. Salesmen wait upon you with 
samples. You make your selections, and in a few days 
the goods are in your store. This mode of selling goods is 
well-adapted to many kinds of business, but in the Millin- 
ery lousiness there are many reasons why other ways of 
disposing of goods .are of greater advantage. For example. 
Hats cannot be carried over the country, packed and re- 
packed scores of times and, keep their freshness. Then tlie 
innumerable shapes that Fashion now prescribes, prevents 
the salesmen from showino: a tenth of them. The mails 



71 

present the easiest, quickest and least objectionable way 
for a Milliner to transact business with a wholesale house. 

First, the mails bring a Hat Plate. On this are figured 
all of the styles that will probably be worn for that season. 
Supplementary plates are sent out as often as anything 
sufficiently new and attractive is put upon the market. 
You are thus informed of the style of the Hats, and in 
many cases of the materials from which it is made. Nearly 
all houses do this. In addition to this mode of informa- 
tion, we send to all of our customers Hill's Milliners* 
Gazette, a monthly publication of sixteen pages. In it 
we give the latest information in the fashionable world. 
We describe Hats, Ribbons, Flowers, and all new varieties 
of Millinery Goods so minutely that an intelligent Milliner 
can form nearly as good opinion of them as if she had 
them before her. Bear in mind that we do tliis every 
month in the year, " and you are thus informed at the 
earliest moment of the changes that Fashion insists must 
be made in articles of woman's dress. You are thus pre- 
vented from being behind the times ; a dereliction that is 
ruinous to a Milliner's success. 

Having, then, all of this information, how shall you 
proceed to use it ? In this way. Order goods to replenish 
your stock or any novelties that may have come out since 
you bought your stock, or, indeed, your whole stock when 
prevented from visiting New York, by letter. I am aware 
that being but beginners in the business, you probably 
have not that skill in framing your orders that those of 
more experience have, and which you will have as time 
goes on. Since you have given me your attention thus fai- 
and kindly taken my suggestions, I have thought that a 
few simple hints upon Making Out of Orders might not be 
unacceptable to you. 



72 

And first let me tell you how not to do it. Don't mingle 
the ordered articles with information and questions in- 
tended only for the firm. I have seen orders where this 
direction was not observed, so mixed, that it took a long 
time to pick ovit from the letter, the articles desired. 
Again, these letters have to be handed to a salesman to 
select the goods and he thus becomes acquainted with 
financial and other matters that concern only yourself and 
the firm. 

Don't write two or more different articles on the same 
line. It is so easy for the salesman who fills the order to 
overlook one of them. 

Don't use a pencil or pale ink if you can help it. A long 
journey in the mails often renders such orders so indis- 
tinct, that it is with the utmost difficulty to guess at them 
with any probability of success. 

But do write your order so that it may be detached, if 
necessary, from the letter part ; or what is better, write 
your order on a separate piece of paper when convenient, 
and enclose it in the letter. Write an ord«r only on one side 
of the paper. Make the figures distinctly. Distinguish be- 
tween your 3's and 5s ; your 7's and 9's. Do put in the name 
of your State, also the County, unless the town is a large one. 
Do sign your name. Do enclose the samples that you say you 
do. Do give shipping directions. Do* read over your order 
when completed to see if you have complied with all of 
these suggestions. Do write Miss or Mrs., as the case may 
be, before your name. In ordering any of the special 
bargains mentioned monthly in the Gazette, alwaj-^s name 
the month of publication. If j^ou have, I will warrant 
that you will receive your goods promptly, the quantity 
and quality will be right, and that you will be satisfied 
with your success in ordering goods by letter. 



73 

Let us see how an order will look when written as 

suggested. 

Hammond, Lake Co., Illinois, 

Messrs. Hill Brothers: Jan. 15th, 1883. 

Gentlemen : 

Please to send : — 

i doz. Hats, Brigand, No. 2, Hat Plate, Fall, '82. 

I «. " Huguenot, 

1 " " Langtry, •' '« 

2 " " Estelle, Satin-Crown and Plush Brims. 

3 '' " Satin-Crown Turbans. 

T) yds. Plush. Golden Brown, at $1.25. see Gazette, Nov. '82. 

.5 '* Silk-faced Velvet. " 1.25, " 

10 PC's Ottoman Silk Ribbon, No. 40, 5 Bl'k. 3 Garnet, 2 Wht. 

2 doz. Ostrich Plumes, at $13.50, see Nov. Gazette. 

^ " Bunches Ostrich Tips. 

5 yds. Velvet, Sample enclosed, 

And charge the same to my acc't. 

Send by Adams's Express. (Miss) Mary R. James. 

The above order is definite. There can be no mistake 
made in filling it. You will get what you ordered, when 
you order it, and it will prove satisfactory. But if the 
above order was written two or more items to the line, 
the numbers of the Ribbons omitted, the Gazette in which 
the bargains are announced, not named there might have 
been mistakes and consequent dissatisfaction. 

This order is plain and easily filled, because Miss James 
knows exactly Avhat she wants. But how shall she proceed 
when she cannot be so definite. The error will be to 
restrict the order to a particular shade or price. The 
goods may be out of the market. The same kind of goods 
in a more popular shade, and ten or fifteen cents more in 
price may be on hand, but the wholesale dealer dare not 
send it ; or the order may be so vague that he does not 
know half of the time what to send. In the first instance, 
the order will probably read : 



"Send 10 yds. Velvet, same as sample enclosed, at $1.45.'' 
Now the dealer Yaay have Velvet so nearly like the sample, 
that it is difficult to distinguish it, yet it is not the same. 
Or, if he has- it the price is $1.6."), and he has learned by 
experience that it is not wise to send goods not in accordance 
with the order, as he may subject himself to express 
charges for their return, and so he writes that he cannot 
fill that particular line. 

A vague order is tliis : 

"Sand 10 pes. Ribbon, No. 60. assorted colors, new styles 
and pretty." He picks out what he calls pretty, but the 
customer is disappointed. The figures are too large and 
the dealer has assorted the colors until there are no two 
alike. So this customer doesn't wish to order l)y letter 
again. 

Now you may write an order giving a large liberty in 
selection and yet limiting the selection within certain 
bouads if you will observe care with your orders and take 
time to have them correct. Don't think that you can dash 
off an order for $100 worth of several kinds of goods in a 
few minutes and be satisfied with what is sent you. 

Suppose you order these Ribbons something like this : — 
"Send 16 pes. Ribbons, No. 60, at $1.50 a piece, latest 
styles, assorted in about three or four different colors, gay 
and bright, about as sample marked 1 enclosed, none 
lighter than sample 3, nor darker than sample 3; if they 
are higher than $1.50. send half of them at the price and 
half as good as j'ou can for $1.50." 

Now. I will warrant that on such an order as that, you 
will get just about what you want and it will prove just 
as satisfactory as if you had visited the store and made 
the selection yourself. 

As a general rule, you may trust an old establighed house 



75 

of good reputation to fill your written orders satisfactorily^ 
provided you give them margins in price, shades and 
quality. Don't think that they will send you higher-priced 
goods than they would if you limited them. If the goods 
are to be had at the price you name, you will get them. 
If not, they will do the best they can. Any other policy 
would be suicidal to their interests, and the reputation of 
a house is of more consequence than the making of an 
extra quarter of a dollar on ten pieces of Ribbon. ( 

Of course when you want goods to match some that one 
of your customers has already bought, you must be defi- 
nite. In such cases it is well to add '"for matching."' 
With a little care and practice, and by reading carefully 
the hints from time to time in the Gazette, you will soon 
be able to write an order pleasing to the wholesale dealer, 
and satisfactory to yourself. Then will you become what 
Aoii aim to be, a business woman. 



Econom}^ is Wealth. 



OSTRICH FEATHERS. 

We do an immense business in dyeing Ostrich Feathers. 
Please remember that only Ostrich Feathers can be dyed, 
and do not send any other kind. Our success in this 
department has been unprecedented. We dye them any 
•color desired, and return them in three days, nearly 
always giving satisfaction. Some of the Feathers even 
look finer after undergoing the process, noticeably those 
which have been dyed any shade of blue. We advise 
3Iilliners who have any stock on hand of soiled or old- 
fashioned Ostrich Feathers to send them to us immediately. 
These are the directions 

Fasten a number to each Feather, to identify it. En- 
<;lose between two pieces of card-board, size of Feathers. 
Sew the Feathers fast to one ; tie on the other. Do not 
sew or seal it. Then wrap the package as you do a news- 
paper, leaving one or both ends open. Address to us, 
putting your name in one corner as sender, and mail. 
]Now send us letter or postal informing us of number sent, 
and the colors desired for each. Address 

HILL BROTHERS, 

625 Broadway, Xew York, 



77 



Fine Millinery Goods For Sale 



-BY 



HILL BROTHERS, 625 BROADWAY, N, Y. 



jlll Novelties atul New Styles added as soon a» 
Put on the Market, 



Trim'd Pattern Hats. Trim'd Pattern Bonnets. 

Trim'd Medium Hats. 
Trim'd White, Colored, & Mixed Sailor Hats. 

" " " " Misses' School Hats. 

" u .. Childrens' " 

u " " Boys' " " 

Qnt'm'd White, Colored & Mixed Ladies' Shade Hats. 

" Misses' 
u .. ^i .. Childrens*" 

*' •' " " Misses' School 

" White & Col'd Ladies' Dress Hats, Straw, low, med. & fine 

a a .. u .< ii f cy b'd 

" " '• Misses' " 

« " •' Ch'd'n' '' " 

" " Ladies' Leghorn Flats, 
" " Misses' 
" '* Childrens' " 

** Black & Col'd Ladies' Bonnets, med. & fine. 
White *' Straw Dolls' Hats, 
French Flowers, in buni-hes, low, med. & fine. 
Fine " " " montures, " " 

American " " bunches, " " '' 

" boxes, 
Assorted Colors. Roses, " '* " 

Silk Roses, 



Assorted Sizes & Colors Silk Buds, low, medium & flue. 

<{ (( (( (f (( (( i( 

u a a ]y£ogs u «t ii u 

u ;i u Daisies, " " " 

'' Col'd Violets, 

" Poppies, " " '* 

'' Pansies, " " 

Butter Cups. Lily of the Valley. 

White & Colored Pond Lilies. 
Orange Blossoms, low, medium & fine. 
Bridal Wreaths, '' " *' 

Leaf " '' " " 

Confirmation " *« *' «' 

Huetic 
Black Silk Flowers, " " " 

" Jetted " *• " " 

" Crape " '' *' " 

" & White Flowers, low, medium & fine. 
White Mourning " " 

Black Ostrich Tips, 
Colored " " " 

Plumes, " 
Black " " " 

Colored Vulture Tips. Colored Vulture Plumes. 

Fancy Hat Ornaments, low, medium & fine. 

a jef '' " " <' 

Plain" " " " " " 

Rivetted Jet Hat Ornaments, low. medium & fine. 
Long Hat Pins, low & medium. 
Trimming " " " & fine. 

Jet Mourn'g " " " *' 

Dull Blk. " '* 

Assorted Sizes Colored Beads. 
Jet 

Dull Blk. " 
Black Gros Grain Silk, low, medium & fine. 
" Faille " " " " 

" Turquoise " " '" 

" Satin, " " " 



79 



Colored Satin, low, medium & fine. 

Black Marcelain Silk. Colored Marcel ain Silk. 

" Foulard " White Foulard " 

Colored Diagonal Silk. 
Fancy Silks, low, medium & fine. 

" Gauze Silks, low, medium & fine. 
Colored Gros Faille, 
Black Velvet, 

Cord 

Black Velveteen, '' " " 

Cord " " " " 

4-4 Black Crape, " " '* 

K_A •« «< << << ♦' 

g_^ .. a ii u it 

Black Roll Crape, 

Asst. Sizes Crape Veils " " " 

Love " > " " " 

Assorted Colors, Single Width, Tissue Veiling. 
" Double " Berage '' 
Chenille Dotted 
Black Dotted 

Assorted Fancy " 

White Wash Blond, low, medium & fine. 
Cream •' " " " *' 

'Fancy" " " " " 

Wht. ♦ " " 

Black & White Rice Net. 

Double Width Brussels, low. medium & fine. 

•• Single 
White Silk Illusion, 
Black '• 
White •' Maline, 
Black " 
Bridal Illusion, 
Scarfing, by the yard. 
White & Colored Taiietan, 
Im. Val. Edge, Assorted Widths, 
Cotton Lace*' 
Spanish " " 



80 

Spanish Gimpure Lace, Assorted Widths, low, medium Si, mm, 

)31ack Beaded " " " " 

Bl'k Gro. Gra. Ribbon, low priced in 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 16. 

mod. grade, in 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 16, 22, m 



Col 



>' 


fine 


- 9, 


12, 16, 22, 80. 


Satin &G. Gra. 


'• low 


•• 9, 12, 16, 22. 


•• 


• med. 


• 5, 7, 9, 12, 16. 22. 30. 


a 


^' fine 


• 5, 7, 9, 12, 16, 22, 30. 40. 


Watered 


" low 


•' 9, 12, 16. 


'• 


•' med. 


• 9, 12, 16, 22. 30. 


(( 


" fine 


• 9, 12, 16, 22. 30. 


Ottoman 


'• med. 


" 9. 12, 16, 22, 30. 40. 




*• fine 


• 9, 12, 16, 22, 30, 40. 


Wat'd. Sash 


" low 


•• 6, 7 & 8 inch. 


t i 


" med. 


•• 6, 7&8 " 


a 


• fine 


• 6, 7, 8&9inch. 


Satin & Wat'd. 


" fine 


• 9, 12, 16. 20, 30. 


Fancy 


•• low 


• 9, 12, 16. 


•' 


• med. 


• 9, 12, 16. 22. 




' fine 


•• 9, 12, 16. 22. 30, 40. 


[i. •• 


'• low 


'• 


Nos. 9 to No. 60. 


• i 


• med. 

• fine. 


, , 


Large Assortment. 


Satin &G. Gra. 


" low 


•• 9, 12. 16, 22. 


a 


•' med. 


'• 5, 7, 9, 12, 16. 


" 


•* fine 


•' 5, 7. 9. 12, 16. 22, 30. 


Gro. Gra. 


" low 


•• 4, 0. 7, 9. 12. 


> < 


'' fine 


•• 2, 4. 5, 7. 9, 12. 16. 


Cord Edge 


•' 


•• li, 2, 3. 4. 5. 7. 9. 


Watered 


■' low 


•' 9, 12, 16. 


•• 


• fine 


•• 9 


12, 16. 22. 30. 60. 



Fancy Chenile Cords, low & medium. 

'' " Trimmings, " 

Silk Pompons, •" " 

Ladies' & Misses' Fancy Lace Collars, low, medium & fine. 
" Silk&Lace " 
Silk Fichus, 
Lace 
" '- Cotton Ties, " '* 



81 



low, medium & fine. 



Ladies' & Misses' Fancy Ties, 

Collarettes, 

Neck Riifflin<?s, " " << 

White, Widows' Ruche, " " <' 

Black, " " '< " " 

'* Bonnet " " << " 

Wliite " " '* " «< 

" Hand made Widows Ruche, " '* " 

Black Crown Lining, *' <« " 

White " " " << " 

" Elastic Cord, " " " 

Black " " « " a 

" " Braid, " '' '< 

White " " ♦' " «' 
Blk. Silk " 

Pi^s. Milliners' Needles. 

Black & White Rihbon Wire. Black & White Bonnet Wire. 

" " Silk Bonnet " " " Shirrin^- " 

O 

Shirring R' eds. 

Fancy Colored Straw Shopping Satchels, Assorted Sizes. 
White " " " " <4 

Round Band Boxes. Square Band Boxes. 
Hat Frames. Bonnet Frames. Childrens' Ilat Frames. 
Ilat Stands, Etc., Etc., Etc., Etc. 




n 
U 




JllUi 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF FASHION, LIT 

EBATUBE AND GENERAL 

INTEL LIGENCE. 



The Gazette is a neat, bright, chatty paper of sixteen 
pages, published upon the first of every month. It con- 
tains mucli information of value to Milliners, as well as 
Good Stories, Poetry, Essays, and other matter of interest 
to the general reader. 



ABSOLUTELY FREE TO OUR CUSTOMERS. 



Send for a Specimen Copy. 



HILL BKOTHERS, Publishees, 



No. 625 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 



;t 



Wiftlk.—From the Bridgrport Boats : and from the Ix>ng Island Railroad 
hkrries foot of Jaincs Street. 

Take the " East Side Belt Line " Cars, (or walk eight blocks) going 
South, (to the left Jrom river) to "Fulton Ferry Line" Cars through 
Fulton. William, Ann Streets, &c., to the corner of Bleecker Street and 
Broadway, whence walk to No. G33. 

Hv%X\k.—From "-Greenpaint, L. I. Ferry'' foot of Tenth Street, E.ist River 
Take the "Avenue C Line, Tenth Street Ferry Branch " Cars from 
Ferry to the corner of Houston Street and Broadway, whence walk to 
No. G35. 

%e\er%.t\k.—Froni 34th Street, Ferry of the Long- Island Railroad, foot of 
34th Street, Fast River. 

Take the "Avenue C Line" Cars from the corner of S4th Street, or 
31st Street and First Avenue, (river front) through First Avenue, 23d 
Streets, &c., &;c , to the corner of Houston Street and Broadway, whence 
walk to No. 03;», or take the 3d Avenue "Elevated Railroad" f.om 
f.ot of 34.th Street, to the corner of Houston Street and the Bowery, from 
whence walk through Houston Street, six blocks (or by horse car, if pre- 
ferred,) to Broadway to No. 02». 

Kig-llfb.— />^;« the "Grand Central Depot;' of the Hudson River and New 
York Central, the "Hudson" and t/ie ••Mew Yorlc, New Haveji and 
Hartford Ralironds;' 42d Street and 4th Avenue. 

Take the "Third Avenue Elevated Railroad," from depot, to the cor- 
ner of Bowery and Houston Streets, (or by horse cars, .say six blocks, if 
preferred] to Broadway No. O'l j» ; or take the Fourth Avenue Cars from 
depot to the corner of Bowery and Houston Street, from whence walk, (or 
ride by horse cars) through Houston Street to Broadway, No. 625 ; or 
take the "Madison Avenue L.ne " of Omnibuses from depot, to No. 
G3S Broadway. 

UTiiitll.— /^rc;« the New Yorlc, Lake Erie and Western Railroad Ferry, 
Joot of 2jd Street, Hudson River. 

Take the "Bleecker Street and Fulton Ferry Line" Cars from Twenty- 
third Street Ferry, through Twenty-third Street, Ninth Avenue, &C., to 
the corner of Bleecker Street nnd Broadway, whence walk to No. 02&. 
^^\kt\\.—Froin Earle's Hotel, corner Canal and Centre Streets. 

Take the " Bleecker Street and Fulton Ferry Line" Cars from the 
corner of Canal and Elm Streets, going North, through Elm, Howard. 
Crosby and Bleecker Streets, to the corner of Broadway, whence walk 
to No. G35, 

finally. — If at a loss how to reach our Store, from any section of 
the c;ty, the first policeman you meet can give you the necessary infor- 
mation ; or. step into any large retail store and ask the way ; any business 
house of established reputation knows our location ; or, if you are buying 
other hnes of goods, any wholesale house that you favor with your 
custom, will be pleased to direct you, as they have scores of otheis. so 
that you may reach us in the shortest way. 

Ko, G25 Broadway, New York. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



250 4 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



002 002 250 4* 



